Brad Pitt’s satirical comedy War Machine has wrapped its shoot in the United Arab Emirates.
The film is produced by Netflix and Pitt’s production company, Plan B Entertainment, and inspired by the bestselling book, The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan. by late American journalist Michael Hastings.
The book is based on Hasting’s interviews with general Stanley McChrystal who was appointed to command the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan in 2009.
Pitt stars as a four-star U.S. military general, patterned after McChrystal, who is determined to win the “impossible” war in Afghanistan.
Anthony Michael Hall, Will Poulter and Topher Grace also star.
The team behind “War Machine” set up the production office before the UAE shoot began in Abu Dhabi in October.
Streets around the Abu Dhabi Media compound were transformed in order to create a fictional American embassy in Kabul.
The production also filmed at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC), the Abu Dhabi New York Film Academy and in remote areas of the Abu Dhabi desert. The film used 500 extras representing 20-plus nationalities, said Noura Al Khaabi, CEO of twofour54 and of the Media Zone Authority Abu Dhabi.
“War Machine” is the latest high-profile Hollywood production after “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” and “Fast and Furious 7” to tap into the Abu Dhabi Film Commission’s 30 percent cashback rebate on production spend.
