Filming of the second series of Jeep sponsored 'Arabia's Cycle of Life' underway

Sponsored by Jeep®, the series was aired regionally on Al Arabiya (in Arabic) and on Showtime's TV Land (in English) last year.

Following the success of the first series, a second series, once again sponsored by Jeep®, and produced by Ocean World Productions, will complete the focus on the wildlife and ecological diversity found across the length and breadth of the Arabian Peninsula. Once filming is complete, the result will be another set of twelve wonderful documentary episodes featuring the often surprising natural world of Arabia.

"This time, our expedition starts with a return visit to Oman to the remote Hallaniyat Islands (previously known as the Kuria Muria Islands) in the Southern Dhofar region," said Jonathan Ali Khan, Project Leader, Director and Cameraman. "Here we will attempt to get closer to the various whale species that frequent these waters. Diving and exploring the Dhofar coast, we will film new species of marine life that have never been filmed before." While in Oman, the team will also explore a cave system, continuing their interest in freshwater fish and other cave dwelling creatures.

"After a brief return to Dubai, we will then make an exciting drive down through Oman in order to reach the border into Yemen," explained Ali Khan. "There we find the greatest bio-diversity in all of Arabia. This is one of the last true strongholds of the Arabian Leopard, and we will place camera traps and try to film wild leopard with the help of mountain tribesmen. The leopard story will also feature the captive breeding work at the Sharjah Breeding Centre for Endangered Arabian Wildlife - who are also supporting the establishment of protected areas in Yemen".

Jeep® is delighted to support the production of the second series. "This project is proving to be important on a number of levels," said Craig Hardie, Marketing & Communications Manager - Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge - DaimlerChrysler Middle East. "It creates regional and international awareness of the key challenges facing the wildlife of Arabia and at the same time showcases the creativity and professionalism of the region's TV industry."

"Clearly from our point of view, it's an ideal partnership for the Jeep® brand, which, throughout its 65 year history has always been about the ability to go anywhere and do anything - those traditional values still apply today, and Jonathan and his team will certainly be demanding the very best from their Jeep Grand Cherokees during the filming of the second series."

One of the main highlights of the whole project will be the island that time forgot - the Island of Socotra - known as the Galapagos of the Indian Ocean. This remote island, belonging to Yemen, split off from Africa over 35 million years ago, carrying some unique plant species that have since evolved in isolation. Over 33% of the plants are endemic and islanders have learnt to use many for amazing medicinal applications.

Endemism here extends to insects, reptiles, birds and marine life, and the intrepid film crew will liaise with UN and Yemeni researchers based on the island, as they try to establish ways to safeguard this unique part of Arabia's natural heritage. "Part of our focus is to find species that have never been filmed before, such as a large bird-eating spider the size of a side plate (the male)," said Ali Khan. "The female of this species has never been photographed and according to local island inhabitants, is said to be enormous. Given that in many arachnid species, the male is often dwarfed by comparison to the female, we really don't know what to expect. Inside a newly discovered cave system on the island, we even find giant venomous centipedes that prey on bats, giant whip spiders and many other new endemic creepy crawlies".

Back in Yemen, they will continue the search for Arabia's endemic species - especially freshwater fish, insects and some remarkable birds. The team will dive the waters of the Gulf of Aden to find unusual reefs formed in sunken volcanoes off the coast of Belhaf. The marine focus continues into the Red Sea, where they will visit the remote Kamaran Island archipelago and Zubayr Island.

Following a brief return to Dubai, the team then hopes to be in a position to move to the Hawar Islands in Bahrain - home to the biggest nesting population of the Socotran Cormorant and also the rare Sooty Falcon. Their waters are also home and feeding grounds for dugongs. In Bahrain, they will continue their Dugong study and film a rare possibly endemic freshwater Terrapin.

During the making of the second series, the Ocean World Productions team will also be joining the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) Coral Reef monitoring project as scientists from Qatar, UAE and the USA work on the region's first joint coral reef monitoring project in the remote warm waters between Abu Dhabi and Qatar - there, the team will look at the issues affecting the survival of the Arabian Gulf's corals and ecosystems.

Finally, Ali Khan and his team will move on to Kuwait. "When we reach Kuwait, we will ascertain the true long-term damage to the first Gulf War's oil spill through the eyes and research of Kuwait's many researchers, environmentalists and scientists," said Ali Khan. "We see this as a symbolic way to conclude the second series - reflecting on the lessons have been learned from how Kuwait has recovered from the scale of environmental damage incurred".

The second series will be broadcast in the spring of 2007. The first series has attracted the interest of international broadcasters and was recently picked up for airing on Animal Planet. It is also available as a DVD box set, with distribution by EMI through main outlets in the UAE including all Virgin Megastores.

This is the first time a regional production has been picked up by Discovery Channel's Animal Planet and Jonathan Ali Khan, Managing Director of Ocean World Productions, is pleased to get the international recognition.

"I feel this is a step forward for all regional film makers. We have shown international broadcasters that this region is capable of making international class productions featuring Arab world subjects. This is the sort of confirmation that I have been looking for, in line with getting regional content into international markets,"

he said.

The first international airing of the full Arabia's Cycle of Life series will be on Animal Planet Japan. Animal Planet Asia has opted for a re-versioned one-hour format. "This kind of development means that we are satisfying international broadcast standards and attaining the quality channels need. But more importantly, it helps us position Arabian story content on TV screens in other parts of the world with massive audiences, helping to create awareness about Arab world subjects," added Ali Khan.

In addition, Ocean World Productions is signing agreements with Singapore and Australia based Sunrise Ltd. for distribution rights of Arabia's Cycle of Life and all future OWP productions in the Australasia region. A similar deal is about to be signed with Belgian group UNICAP for an exclusive distribution deal for Europe on all projects, including the first and second part of Arabia's Cycle of Life and a new major series entitled Arabia's Underwater World.

"This first project was a case of making regional content work for Pan-Arab viewership first and then re-versioning the films for international markets'" said Ali Khan. "On future projects, we will be raising support more from international markets, linking production requirements with distribution deals and then re-versioning the films back for regional broadcasters."

Additional support for the second series, which will be filmed in High Definition in both HDCAM and HDV formats, comes from Sony Gulf, The InterContinental Hotels Group and Scubapro, with broadcast industry support from Sony Broadcast & Professional, Vinten and Fujinon.