Prominent Egyptian actor Nour El Sherif had rejected to sign a contract for a new TV drama to represent famous Islamic leader Khaled Bin Alwaleed unless an official approval by Al Azhar is given. Nour had previously showed his enthusiasm to perform the role after watching a movie done by late actor Hussein Sidqi, so he immediately asked writer Sami Guneim to transform the story intto a TV drama.
According to the UAE based daily, Al Bayan, El Sherif retracted and asked the author to have Al Azhar's approval first before signing any formal contract, in order not to face any complications. If this project receives the approval of AL Azhar, it will eventually open the gateway to the production of more dramas representing famous figures in Islamic history like Abu Baker, Othman bin Affan , and Ali Bin Abi Taleb.
On a similar note, Egyptian director Majdi Abu Ameireh has brought prominent Egyptian actress Yusra and Nour together in a new television drama series “Al Hub Moutan” (Love to Death), noting that the two actors have proven to be extremely successful in their previous roles and are the best two that fit for the series. Majdi revealed that Yusra and Nour have given their initial acceptance to the roles and when the contracts are final shooting of the scenes is scheduled to begin March 2004.
The series will be acted in the Sa’eedi dialect, which is one of Egypt’s suburban dialects. Nour has already begun practicing the dialect with people from the suburbs in order to act out his role up to expectations. The actor added that the last time he accepted a role in the Sa’eedi dialect was 20 years ago, and for this reason he has to undergo extensive training.
In a meeting with students from Ain Shams University, Nour asserted that every paper of the script of his TV drama "Rajol Al Aqdar" (Man of Power has gotten Al Azhar permission to be screened, adding that he made sure to go through all the historical books to prevent any error. The same thing had happened before with Nour when he played the role of Haroun Al Rashid, which he faced lots of criticism for not paying attention to historical facts.
The students at Ain Al Shams surprised Nour when they gave him proof from Islamic reference books stating that many substantial errors were made, specially the character of Salma which students say that she never existed. The students and teachers of Ain Shams also said that it was not convincing that Amr had his own ambitions above the obedience of orders. The teacher of history in the university added that there was some overstepping of limits especially when they were talking about Amr’s wife.
Nour added that next year he will be presenting a theater show from the World Theater, noting that this is going backwards because in the past the theater used to produce new movie actors and not the contrary.
This year is El Sherif, who has been leading the competition in best Ramadan television series for the past two years, was not part of the most watched and popular Ramadan TV dramas for this year. The previous works by Nour were light, satirical, and family content drama that used to have the highest percentage of viewers throughout the Arab world. This year the actor is only taking part in one work, which is a historical drama about one of the great generals of Islam. The drama is witnessing some success but nothing compared to his previous works. –Albawaba.com
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
