MAD Solutions, IRTH Strike Pan-Arab Development Deal at Venice — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- MAD Solutions announced a strategic partnership at the Venice Film Festival with Haitham Dabbour's pan-Arab drama development and production company IRTH to develop, package and support film, TV drama and entertainment projects across the Arab world.
- IRTH specializes in drama content creation spanning films, TV series and plays in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, with Dabbour — bestselling author of 'Devoured by Seven Lean Cows' and 'Moses Cross' — as its founder and a screenwriter whose credits include El Gouna prizewinner 'Gunshot' and Berlinale Generation selection 'The Tale of Ahl El Daye'.
- MAD Solutions, launched in 2010 by Alaa Karkouti and Maher Diab, brings its regional and international network across distribution and sales, talent management, production, and PR and marketing to the partnership, alongside its MAD Celebrity talent banner.
- The two companies will develop original films, TV series and talent-driven projects under MAD Celebrity, while also offering development support — from early-stage writing and script doctoring to market preparation — to third-party producers.
- MAD Solutions is at Venice this year as sales agent for Giornate degli Autori title 'Al Baraneya' and with involvement in Venice Spotlight selection 'Conversations with the Sea', and will present its annual award at Final Cut in Venice, marking 12 years of support for films from Africa and the Arab world.
Why it matters: The deal links IRTH's writer network and creative development infrastructure in Egypt and Saudi Arabia with MAD Solutions' international sales and distribution muscle, giving Arab-originated projects a more direct pipeline to global markets — and giving MAD Celebrity-represented talent an earlier seat in the creative development process rather than just being cast into externally built projects.
Ask SkimNews
