Former Warner Bros. Discovery, OSN Executives Set Up Major Film and TV Banner Rise Studios for Middle East (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Manori Ravindran International Editor Former Warner Bros. Discovery and OSN executives are teaming up to form a new content studio serving the Middle East and North Africa, Variety can reveal.

Rise Studios is being set up by industry veterans Emad Morcos, former OSN chief content and commercial officer; Amanda Turnbull, former general manager at Warner Bros.

Discovery Middle East, Africa and Turkey; and Amel Farag, former head of content commercial strategy at OSN. Rise will invest in local content and talent in order to launch homegrown film and TV productions on both regional and global broadcasters and streaming platforms. “We’re really committed to the region,” Turnbull tells Variety. “It’s changing so rapidly: Cinema is having a renaissance in the region, and all the streamers are also piling in.

There’s increasing opportunity and complexity across the landscape and fantastic ideas we want to tap into.” The outfit, which plans to cultivate a network of local producers, launches on Wednesday with five production partners already in place.