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An infallible dealmaker, resourceful problem-solver and filmmaker-friendly bon vivant, Tarak Ben Ammar has played a pivotal, yet often behind-the-scenes role, in building cultural and cinematic bridges between Europe, the U.S. and the Arab world in last 50 years.
The Franco-Tunisian producer and businessman, who runs Italy’s leading independent distribution company Eagle Pictures and one of the largest studios complexes in France, began as an outsider in the late 1960s. He quickly became an ally to iconic filmmakers such as Roberto Rossellini, Georges Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Franco Zeffirelli. He opened the doors of Tunisia to the film world, helping build an industry from scratch while facilitating the productions of such pics as “Star Wars,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Jesus of Nazareth” and “La Traviata,” among others.
As he ventured deeper into the entertainment industry, Ben Ammar became something of a “billionaire whisperer.” Some of the powerful (and sometimes divisive) figures he’s befriended, did business with and advised over the years include Rupert Murdoch, former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and Vivendi boss Vincent Bolloré, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Al Waleed and even Michael Jackson, whom he managed in the 1990s. In Hollywood, his adroit, behind-the-scenes maneuvers almost single-handedly rescued the Weinstein Co.’s assets and library from going up in smoke after the Harvey Weinstein scandal exploded.
These days, at the age of 75, Ben Ammar is in his prime, professionally speaking. Besides keeping busy with Eagle Pictures and making movies with Sony, Ben Ammar is on a journey to expand the film industry in Saudi Arabia. He recently launched Eagle in Saudi Arabia to “replicate the Italian model,” he says, as well as releasing Sony product and other prestige international and local movies in the region. He helped create a $100 million film fund with the Saudi Culture Fund.
“Tarak has been a consistent force over those 20 years,” says FilmNation boss Glen Basner, who got close to Ben Ammar two decades ago when he worked at the Weinstein Co. and is now frequently collaborating with Eagle Pictures on features. “He does different things always. He’s an entrepreneur, not just a filmmaker,” Basner continues, adding that “whether in Europe, Middle East or America, he operates at the highest and most sophisticated levels in each of those areas because he’s smart, but he’s also kind and generous, and very easy to talk to. He has built a tremendous amount of trust and he cares about cinema in a very real and serious way.”
Brought up across Europe, Africa and America, Ben Ammar came from a bourgeois family in Tunisia — his father was a prominent lawyer and diplomat, while his aunt was married to former Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba — but he’s a self-made man in the movie industry. Ben Ammar attended an American Catholic boarding school in Rome and then Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. “My father was convinced the future was in America, so I got an American education,” says Ben Ammar, who now lives between Rome, Los Angeles and Paris.
During his high school years, Ben Ammar says he learned about different cultures, religions and languages. By the age of 13, he spoke five languages (French, Italian, English, Arabic and German), and his friends came from all different ethnic backgrounds. In a typical Ben Ammar move, he turned the fact that he was the only (non-practicing) Muslim student at the school to his advantage, enlisting the guidance of a priest, who’d seen him come to mass every Sunday, to teach him everything about the Old Testament, the New Testament and Islam. Years later, as he started working on “The Messiah” and “Jesus of Nazareth,” Ben Ammar says he reconnected with the priest — who was then retired — to hire him as a consultant.
During those formative years, he’d also spend his weekends watching American movies. “By the time I graduated in 1970, I’d probably seen 1,500 films and I was passionate about cinema,” he says.
After graduating from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service in 1970, he was planning to go to Harvard Business School, but the impulse to make a career in film was sparked by U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural speech. “He said, ‘My fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country,’” reminisces Ben Ammar. “That phrase stuck in my head.”
So he boldly decided to return to Tunisia.
“When I came back to Tunisia, I was 21, and I said to myself, ‘What can I do for myself and for my country?’ And I found film to be the vehicle,” says Ben Ammar. He could promote the country as a filming destination, a less-expensive alternative to Spain or Italy, which were popular at the time with Hollywood, and a two-hour flight from Rome.
He didn’t let the fact that there was no film industry in Tunisia stop him.
And at about that time, Ben Ammar ran into Rossellini at an airport and approached him. Taken by Ben Ammar’s enthusiasm and eagerness, the Italian master offered him his first job on the spot as a production coordinator on his 1975 feature “The Messiah,” which shot entirely in Tunisia. Rossellini then introduced him to Francesco Rossi, who filmed “The Mattei Affair” in Tunisia, as well as Zeffirelli, who filmed “Jesus of Nazareth,” “La Traviata” and “The Young Toscanini” in the country. Other features that followed included “Monty Python’s Life of Brian” and Lucas’ “Star Wars.” It was Lucas who introduced Ben Ammar to Spielberg, and “Raiders of the Lost Ark” shot many key scenes in Tunisia.
“I became the new kid in town who could help you make a movie less expensively in a beautiful North African setting. I really put Tunisia on the map,’” he says. Ben Ammar ultimately brought 68 movies to Tunisia. “It’s over a million people who worked on our movies,” he says proudly.
Ben Ammar says he learned to stay close to directors. “They made my career, so I’m director-friendly. I’m very sensitive to their vision,” he says.
“He’s an incredible connector,” says Dominique Delport, the former boss of Havas who sat on the board of Vivendi with Ben Ammar and is now part of the Saudi fund’s investors committee.
“I think he was one of the first people to connect the U.S. with Africa and with the Arab world,” Delport says. “That’s what he did when he brought Spielberg and George Lucas to Tunisia and set up the first studios there. That’s what he accomplished when he took it upon himself to promote Arab directors at various festivals.”
Ben Ammar is now aiming to do in Saudi Arabia what he did in Tunisia, hoping to see the local film industry flourish and young filmmakers emerge. “Always listen to young people, that’s my No. 1 mantra because I was in my early 20s when I started and people listened to me,” says Ben Ammar.
The fund he’s helped launch in Saudi is the “first of its kind in the MENA region,” says Ben Ammar, adding that “60% of the fund will come from the private sector — 5% from Eagle, and about 40% from the public sector.”
The Saudi fund, which was initiated by the Saudi culture development initiative, is chaired by Ben Ammar. He in turn brought Jeffrey Schlesinger, the former president of Warner Bros. Worldwide Television, prominent Egyptian producer Mohamed Hefzy and Delport to be part of the investment committee, with the goal to finance commercial movies worldwide, not just Saudi projects.
Ben Ammar says Saudi Arabia is a promising market because of “the size of its population and youth, its desire to modernize the media industry and massive theatrical opportunities,” noting that “The Equalizer 3,” on which Eagle was a producer, did twice the box office in Saudi Arabia compared to Italy.
Ben Ammar’s Eagle Pictures — which he bought in 2007 — has distribution deals with Paramount since 2020 (facilitated by his pal, former Par chair and CEO Jim Gianopulos), and with Sony since 2023 (facilitated by Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Pictures Group chair and CEO Tom Rothman). That pact includes distribution and co-production. Sony has so far partnered with Eagle on a pair of high-profile movies, “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” and “Equalizer 3,” which shot entirely in Italy. Both were co-financed with “tens of millions of dollars” from Eagle, Ben Ammar says. While “The Equalizer 4” is now in early development, Eagle has recently co-invested with Sony on the upcoming Darren Aronofsky film, “Caught Stealing.”
Steven O’Dell, Sony President of International Theatrical Distribution, says Ben Ammar’s cross-cultural background gives him a significant edge.
“One of the things about global is that whether you’re making movies, whether you’re releasing them or whether you’re just dealing with people doing in business, it’s about understanding that cultures are different, and recognizing it, and knowing how to just interact with it and understand it when it comes to the consumer, and when it comes to just working with partners. And he gets it very well. He’s truly a man of the world in that sense,” O’Dell says.
The executive also points to Ben Ammar’s charisma, noting that he has made many friends on Sony’s lot in Culver City, where they often meet. “He probably knows more people on the lot than I do,” quips O’Dell. “There’s not enough color that I have to describe Tarak. He’s worthy of a book, not an article. He’s a quite a character.”
Basner says Ben Ammar also won him over with his endearing personality. “He’s a very significantly successful businessman, and in one minute, you’re immediately disarmed because he’s so just genuine and charming and nice and open,” says Basner. “He wants you to win just as much as he’d like to win himself. And you just somehow sense that right off the bat with it.”
Getting back to his production roots, in 2022, Ben Ammar partnered with American investors, notably Ira Capital, to buy the Studios of Paris for €30 million ($34 million). It was a venture that he had initially invested in, alongside filmmaker/producer Luc Besson, and has recently hosted Netflix hit “Emily in Paris,” as well the 2024 Olympic Village.
He’s also looking to ramp up production at Eagle and is planning an English-language remakes of France’s and Italy’s highest-grossing local films of 2024: “A Little Something Extra,” the French comedy starring a disabled cast, and “The Boy With Pink Trousers.” Ben Ammar co-produced and distributed.
Eagle produced and distributed “Trousers,” based on a true story about a young man who committed suicide after being bullied , which helped the country fight against bullying in schools.
But the common thread running through Ben Ammar’s life and career remains his passion for the American filmmakers and actors of that New Hollywood era he fell in love with as a teenager. Just a couple weeks ago, he celebrated with Spielberg, Lucas and Harrison Ford as Francis Ford Coppola received the AFI Life Achievement Award in a glittering Hollywood gala.
And this year, he’s already planning to throw a party for Robert De Niro when the actor heads to the Cannes Film Festival to receive the Honorary Palme d’Or.
English (US) ·