Sunday, March 04, 2007

Khalid Abdalla from United 93 to The Kite Runner

United 93 certainly gained recognition for director Paul Greengrass as well as member of the sound and film editing crew, but no reviews I read ever highlighted the acting work by any of the large unknown-ensamble.

In fact, the use of an unknown acting crew (unless you watch a lot of Law and Order) made United 93 all the more powerful.

Yet, one actor from this film Khalid Abdalla who played terrorist leader Ziad Jarrah who holds everything together for the attackers on the plane will have a very large role in the next project by Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Monsters Ball, Stranger than Fiction).


Khalid Abdalla will be playing the lead role in Forster's film The Kite Runner, based on 2003 novel by Khaled Hosseini about the taliban regime and a well to do man (played by Adballa) who returns to Afghanastan to deal with his own betrayl of a friend, and son of his father's servant.


I think I'm slowly becoming a Marc Forster fan and am impressed with the variety of projects he has produced in just a few years. I expect this to be a great project, set to be released in November of this year. I am also excited to see the work of Shaun Toub in this project who did an excellent job in Crash.

I wonder if other actors will emerge in the coming years who appear in minor character roles in United 93. Perhaps someday I will watch United 93 and recognize more people in the film than just Rebecca Schull (who played on the TV show wings among other projects.)

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7 comments:

Jordan M. Poss said...

You're dead on about United 93 and its cast--it just goes to show that just because an actor is unknown, they can still act. Abdalla was especially impressive. He brought a lot of nuance to an almost underwritten role.

Kimberly Ann said...

poor khalid abdulla... he's now the "token arab/terrorist" in all of these movies...

Will said...

See, this is precisely the reason I read your blog. You seem to be in tune with picking out the overlooked as well as the upcoming. Completely agree about Khalid's acting, and have also been looking forward to The Kite Runner since Forster announced it a year or so ago.

Anonymous said...

This doesn't just sounds like a great project but this casting news is excellent.

Anonymous said...

Please visit the official Khalid

Abdalla fan page

myspace.com/khalidabdalla

also visit the official movie the

kite runner fan page

myspace.com/thekiterunnermovie

thanks!

Anonymous said...

hi ..please i want help ..i am wrriting an essay about "how the charecters were cast in hollywood. in united 93 movie. and i have to analysie the choices that the director made and why ". ( and i choosed khalid abdulla to write about him ) so, i have to say how he was casted refering to the orignal terrorist ziad jarrah. ...can anyone help me please...its due tomorrow :S:(..thank you

POF Reviews said...

I love authors who create strong characters. I'm putting this on my reading list. Thanks for the review.