A new film produced by and starring Hollywood superstar Tom Hanks will be fully financed by Image Nation Abu Dhabi.

An adaptation of the Dave Eggers novel The Circle, the movie has been written and will be directed by James Ponsoldt (The Spectacular Now).

Alicia Vikander – the Swedish star of the recently released sci-fi drama Ex Machina and the upcoming big-screen remake of the 1960s TV show The Man From UNCLE – will star alongside Hanks. Three other major roles are being cast and will be announced soon. Shooting will start in August in California.

Eggers' novel focuses on a woman hired by an internet monopoly business called the Circle, which links users' emails, social media, banking and shopping accounts with their universal operating system, resulting in a single online identity and a new age of civility and transparency.

It is a contemporary thriller about the perils of life in a digital age, where personal data is collected, sifted, monetised and used for surveillance purposes, rendering privacy obsolete.

"The Circle is a fantastic modern-day thriller that shines a light on the role of the Internet and our own identities in a world of increasing transparency and privacy issues,” says Image Nation chief executive Michael Garin.

"Image Nation's international projects have helped subsidise and build our local industry here in Abu Dhabi and the region, while creating opportunities for our local talent to work on large-scale international productions and this film will help continue that effort.”

The film is the latest project in a long-term collaboration between Image Nation and Parkes Macdonald. They are also partnered on the upcoming documentary He Named Me Malala, directed by Oscar-winner Davis Guggenheim, an intimate portrait of Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by Taliban gunmen on her school bus in Pakistan's Swat Valley.

Image Nation has also been ramping up its film and TV production output over the last year and recently wrapped its next feature film, Zinzana – by first-time feature Emirati director Majid Al Ansari –which is set to release in the UAE in the autumn.
Source: The National