{"id":473764,"date":"2026-02-11T22:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T22:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/473764\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T22:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T22:32:08","slug":"desert-warrior-movie-starring-anthony-mackie-acquired-by-vertical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/473764\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Desert Warrior’ Movie Starring Anthony Mackie Acquired By Vertical"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: Vertical<\/a> has acquired U.S. and U.K. rights to the action film Desert Warrior<\/a>, starring Anthony Mackie<\/a> (Elevation), Aiysha Hart<\/a> (We Are Lady Parts) and Ben Kingsley<\/a> (Gandhi), from MBC Studios. It\u2019ll be released this spring.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis marks the culmination of a long journey to screens for the project, a $150M Saudi Arabian epic set up by Riyadh media giant MBC that was first announced in 2021. Rupert Wyatt<\/a>, the filmmaker behind Rise of the Planet of the Apes, was at the helm, exiting and returning to the project amid creative fissures. There was speculation as to whether the film would see the light of day, but it made its premiere at the Zurich Film Festival last year. For our in-depth reporting on the project\u2019s path to screens, click below.<\/p>\n

\n\tDesert Warrior is set in seventh-century Arabia, where Princess Hind (Hart) defies her fate, refusing to become a concubine to the ruthless Emperor Kisra (Kingsley). Fleeing into the desert with her father, she is hunted by a merciless army and forced to trust a legendary bandit (Mackie) with secrets of his own. Rising from fugitive to fearless warrior, Hind unites warring tribes for a final stand\u2014the Battle of Ze Qar, a clash that will change history forever.<\/p>\n

\n\tOthers in the cast include Ghassan Massoud (All the Money in the World), Sharlto Copley (The Witcher) and G\u00e9za R\u00f6hrig (Marty Supreme). Wyatt co-wrote the screenplay with Erica Beeney (Captive State) and David Self (Road to Perdition).<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement to Deadline on the acquisition, Wyatt said, \u201cDesert Warrior is that rare beast of a film that combines a very human story with epic scope and ambition. Shot in the most extraordinary desert landscapes, with a cast and crew of thousands who all reached for the stars, I am privileged to have played my part in perhaps one of the last in-camera on-location action epics. So it\u2019s fitting and fortunate to have Vertical bring our film to cinema audiences and the big screen. Long live cinema!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDesert Warrior was produced by MBC Studios, Jeremy Bolt (Resident Evil,\u00a0Death Race), and Saudi producer Rasha AIEmam, and executive produced by Pete Smith, Firas Dehni, Wyatt and Beeney, Eric Hedayat, Stuart Ford for AGC Studios, Dennis Berardi, and Andre Coutu. <\/p>\n

The deal was negotiated by Jarowey and SVP of Acquisitions Tony Piantedosi on behalf of Vertical and by Anant Tamirisa for AGC International, which is handling worldwide sales for the film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Vertical has acquired U.S. and U.K. rights to the action film Desert Warrior, starring Anthony Mackie (Elevation),…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[241573,89743,64,63,43033,241574,134,344,241575,29306],"class_list":{"0":"post-473764","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-aiysha-hart","9":"tag-anthony-mackie","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-ben-kingsley","13":"tag-desert-warrior","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-movies","16":"tag-rupert-wyatt","17":"tag-vertical"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}