Hollywood eyes Dubai's Media City project

Published December 13th, 2000 - 03:00 GMT

The Hollywood company Paramount Pictures is looking into the prospects of working with Dubai Media City (DMC), organizers of the newly launched venture said Tuesday. A Paramount delegation headed by Jonathan Zilli, a senior vice president, visited this Gulf emirate for talks with the chief executive officer of DMC, Said al-Muntafiq.

They sought "to identify joint opportunities and ways in which they (Paramount) could participate in the development of Dubai Media City and its many projects," DMC said in a statement. Zilli was quoted as saying the venture "looks very promising and fills a gap in the geographical spread of media providing the region with a strategically located media hub."

The liberal emirate of Dubai, already a Gulf trading hub, is rushing headlong into the electronic age with a series of multi-billion-dollar projects in a bid to become the region's e-commerce, leisure and tourism capital.

Since late October, it has launched Dubai Internet City, which is touted as the world's first internet free zone, DMC and a Dubai Ideas Oasis to focus on information technology. — (AFP, Dubai)