EXCLUSIVE: Marvel’s Moon Knight Director Mohamed Diab has revealed fresh details about his new feature Lion, starring Egyptian megastar Mohamed Ramadan in a role inspired by Ancient Rome rebel slave Spartacus.
“It’s a period piece, a kind of Spartacus meets Braveheart set in 1850s Egypt,” said Diab, talking to Deadline on the fringes of Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival.
Currently mid-way through shooting in Cairo, Lion marks Diab’s first picture back in his native Egypt since 2016 breakthrough Clash. In between times, he made the Palestine-set drama Amira, followed by directing Moon Knight for Marvel.
Diab has revealed very little about the new movie, which was originally announced under the title of Black Lion and is being billed as his most ambitious Arab-language production to date.
“It’s about slavery in the 1850s. It’s an epic film. It’s not based on a real person but inspired by true events. Slaves in Egypt at the time were kidnapped from Africa, although we don’t explain exactly where the protagonist is from,” said Diab.
Actor, singer, rapper, dancer and producer Ramadan, whose slew of box office hits includes The Legend, and The Diesel, leads an ensemble cast.
He is joined by Egyptian household names Aly Kassem (Kira & El Gin), Razane Jammal (Paranormal), Ahmed Malek (The Swimmers) and Maged el-Kedwany (The Originals).
Further cast members include Palestinian actor Kamel El Basha who won best actor in Venice for The Insult in 2017, and rising Sudanese, Cairo-based actors Mustafa Shehata and Islam Mubarak, who both appeared in You Will Die At 20, and Eiman Yousif, co-star of Cannes Breakout Goodbye Julia.
Mousa Abo Taleb is lead producer under the banner of Cairo-based Egyptian production house Goodfellas, not to be confused with the French sales company of the same name.
‘We’re in the middle of shooting in Cairo and I’m very happy with it but it’s a challenge to do a period piece, an action piece. Half of me is making an independent film, half of is making a commercial film,” said Diab.
The director is expecting Lion – which will feature a fair amount of SFX – to be ready to launch from Q3 2025.
Diab and his wife and long-term creative partner Sarah Goher were at Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival to give a talk about their experiences of working on Moon Knight. The show, which was an unexpected hit in Egypt.
The pair worked together on the 200-page pitch that secured Diab Marvel President Kevin Feige’s approval to oversee the show, starring Oscar Isaac as Marc Spector, a former US marine and CIA agent who gains moon-based powers from the Egyptian moon god Khonshu
They were given a homecoming heroes welcome at El Gouna, with the open-air auditorium packed with multi-generational fans and local emerging film directors and students with dreams of following in their footsteps.
Prior to getting the Lion shoot underway, Diab supported Goher, who was a consulting producer on Moon Knight, on her directorial debut Happy Birthday.
The feature explores classicism in modern-day Cairo through the eyes of an eight-year-old maid, who is best friends with the daughter of the wealthy household where she works.
“It all takes place over one day, the birthday of the child who lives in that house, who is also her best friend,” said Goher.
“It took a year to find and train the girl who plays the leading character, and I couldn’t be more proud of this young girl who I found in the street, and comes from a similar background as the character. It has been the most amazing, exhilarating experience working with her.”
This big screen debutant Dora Ramadan is joined in the cast by Nelly Karim (Voy! Voy! Voy!), Hanan Motawie, Hanan Youssef, Khadija Ahmed, Ali Sobhy, Sherif Salama, Jumana Ibrahim and Cady Mohamed.
Diab is a producer on the film with Ahmed El Desouki at Skylimit Productions, Ahmed Abbas at Immersive Studios, Ahmed Badawy at Film Square and Jaimie Foxx and Datari Turner at Foxxhole Productions.
Goher first started working on the feature idea in 2018, and then she and Diab finished the screenplay while holed up in Michigan during the pandemic, prior to taking on Moon Knight.
“Once that was over, I’ve been wanting to make this film for a while and it felt like the right time to start putting my focus on it,” says Goher.
Now in post-production, the film is out to festivals and looking for sales representation for a 2025 launch.
Diab says they have another three to four projects – “period pieces and modern-day action films” – on the backburner. He has also confirmed he is still on board direct Leap.
The high concept sci-fi action thriller, with a script by Source Code writer Ben Ripley and produced by The Picture Company, was announced last year.
“We’ve finessed the script and now we’re in casting. As a team, we’re moving forward on it,” says Diab.
In the meantime, he is enjoying being back in Egypt, working on his own projects in a more independent fashion, after five years in the U.S..
“Working on Moon Knight was amazing, but Hollywood can be harsh,” says Diab, who reveals he is picky about what he takes on. “We get offers every day, but you have to do something better. I don’t mind a clean slate. I don’t mind if I onlywork every five years, as long as I’m doing something better at the next step.”
Quizzed on whether he would consider working on another Marvel production further down the line, or whether an extension of the Moon Light story is one cards, Diab says the door is always open.
“You never know – with Marvel nothing is called finished. There could be a film, or he could go into another universe,” he said. “Right now nothing is in talks but I definitely with Moon Knight, I would love to be involved in anything else and it could happen for sure. I have a great relationship with them.”
