Bloomberg reports on the Hollywood investment business of Al-Saadi Qaddafi, son of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi (and, before he failed a drug test, a rising soccer star).
The company name is “Natural Selection,” they’re based in West Hollywood, and here’s the website. Don’t miss the Flash intro on their front door: two elephants charge each other across the savanna, violently head-butt each other, then and morph into gold statues.
Snip from today’s Bloomberg piece:
Al-Saadi, a 37-year-old former professional soccer player, has invested in a $100 million Los Angeles-based film production fund called Natural Selection, founded by Matty Beckerman. He may be able to continue to push film productions for that fund as his father struggles to contain a revolt in Libya that has left hundreds dead.
“This son is quiet and legitimate and less political than his father,” said Wendy Mitchell, head of news at London-based film trade magazine Screen International. “It’s hard to get money to invest in films so I’m not sure people would necessarily go the other way. They were doing good business before all this happened.”
Natural Selection is producing “The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer,” with Mickey Rourke in the lead. The fund is also backing “Isolation,” a thriller with Susan Sarandon’s daughter, Eva Amurri. While the Qaddafi connection raised eyebrows when Al-Saadi announced in 2009 that he was getting into Hollywood, the crisis in Libya may not sway investors and actors from taking on films backed by his fund.
Nah, don’t count on that—it’s still Hollywood.
Qaddafi’s Son Bankrolls `Mafia Killer’ Movie While Father Clings to Power
More on Natural Selection in this 2009 archive story from Screen Daily. Here’s a related Daily Beast story from 2010, and a Financial Times item from the same year.