Hollywood producer Ahmos Hassan has teamed with attorney David Stern to launch a new production studio aimed at developing projects that will portray Muslim characters in a “positive but not flawless light.”
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Hassan said that after years of on-screen Muslim representation not mattering, “now it does, not just to the industry, but to the American audience.”
The idea for Chariot Entertainment, says Hassan, is to create films and television that could “break through clannishness.” The idea for the company was developed for years between Hassan and Stern, who is Jewish.
Hassan said Trump’s tenure in office has made it necessary to include a unique legal clause in the company’s presentation to investors; a portion of the “risk factors” section serves as a warning that the U.S. government may in the future designate the company’s actives as “un-American.”
“We cannot predict whether your investment in the Company might later be construed as ‘Un-American’ activity by certain elements of our government or citizenry,” reads the legal clause, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Chariot is already developing three features films and three TV series. Hassan, who has consulted on major projects like Homeland and Disney’s forthcoming coming live-action adaptation of Aladdin, will, along with Stern, lean on past relationships to attract a wide-randing variety of talent toward the budding film company.
“We should help our communities — Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus — become closer and create a business and media networking society,” says Hassan.
The producer will reportedly look to leverage his longstanding philanthropic posts, as he chairs the Hollywood bureau of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, and other industry relationships, to pull resources toward Chariot.
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