From Peter O'Toole roaming the Wadi Rum desert on his horse in "Lawrence of Arabia" in 1962, to Matt Damon driving his spacecraft amid the terrain that resembles the surface of Mars in "Al-Muraikhi" in 2015, Jordan, known for its geographical diversity, attracts global filmmakers.

The ninth edition of the "Star Wars" series, whose first show is being shown in galleries in the United States today, Tuesday, and in Jordan tomorrow, Wednesday, was the last Hollywood movie in which many scenes were filmed in Jordan, where in 2003 a body was established providing facilities, technical, administrative and technical assistance for cinematographic production in order to encourage it On choosing Jordan.

The movie "Al-Merikhi", some of its scenes were filmed in the Martian-like desert of Rum (Associated Press).

Open air studio
Director General of the Royal Film Commission Muhannad al-Bakri is proud of Jordan as a "huge open-air studio", noting that its diverse terrain attracted filmmakers.

Films are being filmed in Madaba, with ancient houses as Greece, in the Wadi Rum desert as Mars, and in Azraq, with its water bodies known as East Asia, he adds.

She filmed in the country - largely safe - dozens of international films, including unforgettable scenes of Harrison Ford passing through the ancient Petra Caves, which attract millions of tourists annually, in Indiana Jones and the Last Crossed (1989).

The first film to be portrayed in Jordan was "Lawrence of Arabia", and images of Peter Actor O'Tools, who embodied the role of British officer Thomas Edward Lawrence, who helped the Arabs in their war to liberate the Arabian Peninsula from Ottoman rule, were born in the minds. "Lawrence of Arabia" was nominated for ten Oscars, which won seven of them.

Guy Ritchie, director of the movie "Aladdin" - whose scenes were also photographed in Jordan - told a press conference to release the film in Amman on May 13, 2019, that Wadi Rum was the natural choice for us, while star Will Smith, who embodies the role of Aladdin At the conference, "When we suddenly landed in Jordan, the feelings of the characters began to be embodied in us, and as soon as you walk in the place you meditate around you, the character that you perform reincarnates, to me it was very amazing."

Aladdin film filmed some of its scenes in Wadi Rum in Jordan (Communication sites)

Incentives for filmmakers
Al-Bakri says about the authority he runs that it offers a lot of incentives to movie makers, starting with facilitating obtaining entry visas into the Kingdom and providing filming sites, through actors and compars.

The authority has set up a film support program to motivate foreign producers to come to Jordan, through which tax incentives are provided, in which between 10% and 25% of the cost of the film in the Kingdom will be returned to the producers, according to Bakri.

The minimum expenditures are assumed to be $ 1 million, for producers to benefit from the program.

The Jordanian monarch appeared in a small clip in the second season of the "Startrik" series in 1996 in one of the spacecraft's corridors, while he was still crown prince.

Local Jordanian production companies provide all kinds of technical and logistical support and coordination with specialized local technical cadres, including photographers and sound engineers.

Mounir Nassar, general manager of "Zaman" for project management, says that all the films that were filmed in Jordan cost less than the specified budget and a shorter time than specified.

Movie theater
Among the films in which his company worked five films on the red planet, including "mission to Mars" and "the last days on Mars" and "Mars."

She also worked in the films "Aladdin" and "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker".

"For example, we worked five months to prepare and prepare for the filming of the last part of the" Star Wars "series, and when the actors came, they finished filming in 12 days and left," explains Nassar, a former tourism minister.

The company works to provide food, hotel reservation companies, cars, and trucks to transport equipment, clothing, and contracts for the Jordanian team, open a bank account, and coordinate with the security forces, civil defense, army, and air force.

Geographical diversity in Jordan made it a kiss for filmmakers (Al-Jazeera)

Jordan was also the scene of filming several films about the Iraq war, including "Hart Locker" in 2008 by Catherine Bigelow, who received two Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Actor, filmed in Amman and Madaba.

Films from the movie "Zero Dark Thirty" in 2012 depicted in an area close to the Dead Sea, talking about the last 100 hours in the life of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Jordanian actor Ashraf Telfah, who participated in the movie "Zero Dark Thirty", told Agence France Presse, "Even if our Jordanian actors' participation in these films is through short roles, but they give us an opportunity to meet the great artists, directors and writers of the world. Hollywood penetrates every home in Almost the world. "

Telfah expresses his pride in participating in the film, saying, "I have a dream inside me from a young age, which is to be in Hollywood and to work there, not to be a world star, but to convey messages to students of representation and youth from my country that nothing is impossible in this world."

The birth of a Jordanian cinema
Al-Bakri says that the authority also supports Jordanian producers in the Jordanian cinema industry through the "Film Support Fund", noting that until 2007 there was no Jordanian films production.

"Abu Raed" was the first Jordanian film to be produced by director Amin Matalqa. After that came major films, including the movie "Theeb", directed by Naji Abu Nawar, who was nominated in 2016 for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film category.

Jordanian producer Rola Nasser, who has worked in producing about 30 Jordanian and Arab films, says that filming foreign films in the Kingdom has had a major role in developing the skills of local cadres and enhancing their expertise.