If not it would be a pity because the “Arabian Nights” genre is/was a very imaginative and entertaining one. In particular I’m thinking of one nearly forgotten example: Captain Sinbad 1963, starring Guy Williams of Lost In Space fame. Now the production values were comical, yet if it were remade with modern CGI graphics I think it would be great.
Ray Harryhausen (who had made arguably the best Sinbad movie in 1959 – The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad) made two more in the 1970s – The Golden Voyage in 1974 and …and the Eye of the Tiger in 1977. There have beenb many more Sinbad movies since, including Sinbad of the SEven Seas[ with Lou “The Hulk” Ferrigno in 1989 and the animated (some of it CGI) Sinbad of the Seven Seas in 2003
So I don’t see why you couldn’t make another today.
Some of the early Sinbad movies sort of ignored the Muslim features – there’s not much of it in Seventh Voyage. But others embraced it John Philip Law in Golden Voyage frequently invokes Allah and acts more Muslim than Kerwin Matthews ever did. (It’s been too long since I saw Seven Seas, to recall exactly how it was handled).
Looks like the most recent Sinbad movie was three years ago.
Lumpy, do you believe that American movie goers would boycott a Sinbad the Sailor/Arabian Nights film?
Not boycott, but it might have a disappointing box office.
If they could bring back a 25-year-old Caroline Munro to star (she was in Golden Voyage, yes sir, was she ever) I would see the SHIT out of a new Sinbad movie, even if the profits went straight to ISIS.
The animated Sinbad movie from the early 2000s turned him into a Greek.
I wouldn’t recommend the film.
So did The Adventures of Sinbad (1996-98), but I think that was less “anti-muslim prejudice” and more “anti-lack of lesbian warrior princesses.”
Honestly, these days I almost suspect a new Sinbad movie would get more crap for the hero (or supporting heroines) not being “good enough” Muslims, or for the production being “culturally appropriating” and “Orientalist,” more than the Peoria moviegoing crowd would revolt over a swashbuckler fighting a cyclops-centaur.
Wasn’t there a Sinbad TV show on Netflix or something recently?
Only 12 episodes, 5 years ago. Dang, I enjoyed that one.
Or the distributors/film-makers could receive such a shit-storm of bad publicity that the venture may be viewed as a non-starter by many who would otherwise be attracted to such a project.
Of course, Sinbad the actor was in the movie Shazam, and look what happened to that.
When TNT ran the Harryhausen Sinbad movies in one night, they had Sinbad the comedian/actor as the host.
Oh, hubba hubba, yes! I had such a case of the warmies for her, back in the day!
I’m pretty sure American film-goers are able to create a cognitive wall between the medieval fantasy Arabia and the modern real Arabia. (Just the way we can enjoy gangster movies…without having any sympathy for real gangsters.)
If one wanted to be (overly) cautious, they could create an analogue of the Arabian world. I’m thinking, for example, of Hanna Barbera’s “Pirates of Dark Water.” The show had an Arabian Nights tone, but was set in a separate fantasy world.
ETA: I didn’t mean to equate Arabs with Gangsters; the analogy was meant to be in regard to literary styles, not a real-world political comparison!
Let’s not forget Golden Voyage had a pre-fourth Doctor Tom Baker as the evil Prince Koura. Talk about babes.
Plus, I don’t think Koura was all that evil. Sure he tried to kill Sinbad a couple of times, but almost everybody Sinbad runs into on his adventures does that. And Koura was way nicer to his servants and crew than Sinbad was to his. Beware of people who are mean to the waiters, you might say.