Egyptian Star Mohamed Karim, Dark Castle Team on Horror Film ‘Book of Chaos’ (Exclusive)

Mohamed Karim

@Mohamed Karim

Dark Castle Entertainment (Orphan, House of Wax) and Egyptian actor Mohamed Karim (A Score to Settle) have signed a deal to develop the Middle East-set horror film Book of Chaos.

Based on Karim’s original idea, the film follows a “relentlessly driven Egyptologist” who, searching for the secrets of a long-buried prophecy, unwittingly unleashes an ancient evil and must battle demonic spirits, a dark cult and the gods themselves to save the world and the woman he loves.

Karim will play one of the leads in the film. Thomas M. Hewlett will write the screenplay based on Karim’s original idea. Alex Mace, Hal Sadoff and Ethan Erwin of Dark Castle Entertainment will produce Book of Chaos.

Karim has had parallel careers in the Middle East and the U.S. As host of a pan-Middle East version of singing competition show The Voice, from 2012-2014, he reached an audience of more than 100 million viewers in the region. He has also appeared in such local features as the Jordan-set rom-com A Facebook Romance (2012) and Egyptian TV series Ard Gaw (2019). In America, Karim has appeared alongside Nicolas Cage in 2019 actioner A Score to Settle and with Bruce Willis in the upcoming A Day to Die.

Dark Castle, a division of the Katz Group, was originally set up in 1998 by Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis and Gilbert Adler and has produced such horror titles as Gothika (2003), starring Halle Berry and Robert Downey Jr., and Jaume Collet-Serra’s Orphan (2009). The company re-launched in 2017. Productions since then include Simon Barrett’s directorial debut, Seance, and the upcoming Orphan prequel Orphan: First Kill by director William Brent Bell.