I have a serious Mark Strong jones (*wink wink nudge nudge*) so I have been waiting for this one. An English language trailer has emerged for Jean-Jacques Annaud's Black Gold. (A trailer dubbed in French came out earlier this week, but I wanted…no make that needed to hear Mark Strong's voice!) The film is set in what is know known as Saudi Arabia during the 1930's at the beginning of the oil boom. It centers on a young Arab Prince Auda (Tahar Rahim, A Prophet) torn between his conservative father (Mark Strong, Robin Hood,Sherlock Holmes, Rocknrolla) and his modern, liberal father-in-law (Antonio Banderas, Puss in Boots, Haywire, The Skin I Live In). Frieda Pinto (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) costars as Auda's wife, Princess Lallah. 

 

With a screenplay by Menno Meyjes (The Color Purple, The Siege, A Matador's Mistress), Black Gold is based on Hans Ruesch's "The Great Thirst" (alternate title "The Arab") and is Annaud's (The Name of the Rose, Seven Years in Tibet, Enemy at the Gates) first film since 2007's His Majesty Minor with Vincent Cassel. Black Gold screens at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival in Qatar next week and opens in the US on December 23.