Son of Repressive Libyan Dictator Is Hollywood's Newest Power Player
Oh yeah: Let's get some of that sweet dictator cash! Saadi Gaddaf, the 36 year-old son of Libyan president (and three-time winner winner of Dictator of the Year) Muammar Gaddafi, has invested $100 million into a movie production fund.
In 2008, Matthew Beckerman, the head of the production fund Natural Selection, was looking for some funding. He had already raised around $20 million but, whoops! the economy collapsed! So he found cash in a place sheltered from the whims of the market: Muammar Gaddafi's oil-enriched offspring. Some people might have thought twice about partnering with a Gaddafi. But Beckerman tells the Wrap:
Iinitially when people hear it, they get concerned. But it's money at a time when there's very little equity out there.
Man, we're lucky the economy didn't get any worse than it did or else we'd have Ahmadinejad Studios churning out rom-coms starring Taylors Swift and Lautner.
Saadi Gaddafi must have been tired of building "semi-autonomous cities" in the Libyan desert and playing professional soccer in Italy (In 2003 he was suspended for testing positive for steroids) because he's just invested $100 million into the project, according to The Wrap. Natural Selection's first film will be the thriller Isolation by The Shield director Steven Kay.
Do not think that just because he is the jet-setting playboy son of an African dictator Gaddafi is unqualified to become a movie mogul. Beckerman tells the Wrap that "He's seen 'Lost 30 times.'" Also, he has millions and millions of dollars thanks to Libya's state-run oil industry. Plus Saadi has kept relatively clear of any real legal trouble. His brother Hannibal, on the other hand, has racked up an impressively international rap sheet, including beating his servants with a coat hanger. Here is a tip for all you Hollywood moguls: Stay far away from the Natural Selection Oscar party! (Although, who knows, Beyonce might perform.)