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Omar Sharif to star in Egypt version of King Lear

A new King Lear is in the making. According to reports, Egyptian-born Oscar-nominated actor Omar Sharif is to play the patriarch in a new film adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear set in the modern Middle East.

Entertainment magazine Variety reported the 77-year-old actor, who is of Arab and French origins, and the star of “Lawrence of Arabia” has been tapped to play Lear, scheduled to take place in modern Egypt.
Egyptian writer Khaled Al Khamissi, who wrote the novel “Taxi,” an international bestseller, has been chosen to write the screenplay.
According to the magazine, the film is being developed and produced by Frederic Sichler’s Amana Creative, who was once CEO of France’s StudioCanal.
Sichler is co-producing “King Lear” with Egypt’s Misr Intl. and perhaps Egypt National Broadcast Corp.
“Shakespeare is an icon of European culture, Al Khamissi represents the best of a new generation of Arab writers, and Omar Sharif has been a bridge between our two worlds for half a century,” producer Sichler said in the Variety article.
A director has yet to be announced and shooting is scheduled to begin by late 2010.
King Lear is the Shakespeare tragedy that shows an aging king who decides to divide his domain in three, among his daughters. When he denies his good daughter her share, it becomes his — and his kingdom’s — undoing