Trio rolls dice on casino pic - Companies team on 'Fabulous' film, by Michael Fleming - Variety - 17th August 2008

A trio of production companies are teaming to tell the story of the Moulin Rouge, the first desegregated hotel and casino in Las Vegas.

Tyro scribe Milosz Feigin has completed penning "The Fabulous Moulin Rouge," and the producers are setting up the film to be shot in Dubai.

Pic is a co-production of Dubai-based Exwaze, Hollywood-based Hughes Capital Entertainment and Garden Grown Entertainment, the last of which was formed by brothers Mos Def, Khalil Prescott-Bey and Rahman Prescott. Exwaze managing director Abbi Shabazz and Hughes Capital prexy Patrick Hughes will be producers.

While casino gambling isn't permitted in Dubai, Shabazz and Hughes said they plan to erect a replica of the casino that sprang up in 1955 and closed six months later under mysterious circumstances just as it was gaining momentum and attracting singers such as Sammy Davis Jr., Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra.

Drama will focus on a fictional African-American character who rises from mob debt collector to manager of the Moulin Rouge. Shabazz said Dubai is ambitious about attracting film shoots, and he opened a company there to take advantage of funding opportunities as they raise coin to shoot the picture late next year.

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