Nicolas Cage’s ‘Lord of War’ Sequel to Shoot in Morocco in 2024 With Top Line Producer Karim Debbagh (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Karim Debbagh‘s leading Tangier-based line producer Kasbah Films has secured a raft of U.S. and U.K. projects that will lense in Morocco, including “Lords of War,” the sequel to “Lord of War,” starring Nicolas Cage as the world’s most notorious arms dealer.

While attending the Marrakech Film Festival, Debbagh spoke to Variety about his work on “Lords of War,” which is expected to start shooting in March for approximately 40 days.

Debbagh is currently scouting locations across Morocco. “We’re trying to cover four or five African countries, such as Libya, Egypt, Senegal and Mali and several countries in the Middle East, and we’ve almost found everything in Morocco,” said the veteran producer, who seemed overjoyed to restart scouting after having been forced to pause for eight months due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. “Casablanca itself is so diverse,” Debbagh said, “that you find areas that look like Senegal and others that are very luxurious like a California neighborhood, and if you’re looking for places that look similar to Libya, Yémen or Syria, you can find them in and around Marrakech.” He said the sequel will benefit from the local tax rebate incentive, which was upped to 30% a year ago.

The current scheme no longer caps the rebate to €1.8 million per film and instead has an annual cap of €10 million in rebates for all foreign shoots. “This new system means that it’s ‘first come, first served,'” said Debbagh.