Uri Singer’s TaleFlick Platform Connects Saudi Storytellers with Hollywood

TaleFlick, the online storytelling platform launched by “White Noise” producer Uri Singer and former Netflix executive George Berry, is opening its doors to poets, saying it wants to accept submissions that “capture the essence, history, and living traditions of Saudi Arabian culture.”

Storytelling in the Arab world is traditionally tied to oral history and poetry. The stated goal of opening TaleFlick – which gives writers a chance to pitch their work to producers and studios – is to build a bridge between Saudi verse and Hollywood.

“Poetry is at the heart of Saudi culture, resonating deeply with its people and heritage,” Singer, CEO of TaleFlick, said in a statement to Diversity. “Through the creation of poetry, we aim to pay homage and elevate this beautiful art form by providing a platform to transform these stories into powerful visual narratives,” he added.

Expanding TaleFlick’s offerings from fiction, non-fiction and screenplays to poetry from around the world will allow poets from Saudi Arabia and beyond “to share their unique voices and stories with a global audience,” according to a statement.

Poems submitted to TaleFlick will be selected and presented to a network of studios and producers, “offering a unique opportunity to adapt these poetic works for film, television series, and other forms of visual storytelling,” it added. Submitted poems will be available to studios and producers worldwide.

Singer noted that Saudi poems can be submitted in Arabic, “because we also have translators and poets from that region on our curatorial team.” The submission process is free.

A year ago, TaleFlick – launched in 2018 – expanded its reach beyond English-speaking countries and began accepting submissions in Arabic, Spanish, Hindi, Japanese and South Korean.

As stated in the statement, the next step in the initiative planned by TaleFlick is to select participants from among the poems submitted to the site, which will give them the opportunity to take part in a reality show titled “House of Poems.”

This would not be anything new, as the Middle East already has a show called “The Million’s Poet,” a sort of “American Idol” for poets from the Arab region. The show has been broadcast on Abu Dhabi TV since 2007 and has millions of viewers throughout the Arab world.

Of course, there are already connections between poetry and cinema in the region.

A recent example of poetry and film merging in Saudi Arabia is Mohamed Al Salman’s absurdist drama “Raven Song,” which was Saudi Arabia’s Oscar entry last year. It tells the story of a young man named Nasser who, after being diagnosed with a brain tumor, is persuaded by his best friend to contact an enigmatic woman he is infatuated with by singing a love poem to her.

Singer, who attended Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival last year — and plans to return — is a prolific producer, best known for “Marjorie Prime,” “White Noise” and “Tesla.” His upcoming projects reportedly include two films rooted in the region, the much-anticipated female revenge thriller “Beretta” from Palestinian director Maysaloun Hamoud and the Saudi oil origin story “Sands of Fortune” from British director Jon Amiel.