At long last, Mena Massoud is back. The Egyptian-Canadian actor and star of 2019’s billion-dollar-grossing (and surprisingly fun) Aladdin live-action remake is headed to his ancestral homeland for his next film, entitled In Broad Daylight.
Six weeks after announcing the project, Massoud has dropped the first poster on his Instagram.
“It’s been a dream of mine to head back to Egypt and act with some of the most talented artists in the world,” the star wrote. “Awesome things to come!”
Massoud also thanked his collaborators, including Signal Films, Kareem Sorour, the film’s screenwriter and Morcous Adel, the film’s director.
The actor will be joined by Egyptian actress Myrna Noureldin in the film, though plot information still has yet to be released.
This will be Massoud’s first major role since Aladdin. The actor previously lamented how difficult it was to find the right project or even land an audition to follow up his blockbuster Disney film, though now the talented actor seems to have found his path forward.
“I’m kind of tired of staying quiet about it. I want people to know that it’s not always dandelions and roses when you’re doing something like ‘Aladdin.’ ‘He must have made millions. He must be getting all these offers.’ It’s none of those things. I haven’t had a single audition since ‘Aladdin’ came out,” Massoud said last year.
The actor appeared on the cover Esquire Middle East in 2019.
At the time, Massoud told us that he hoped his career would resemble that of Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey.
“Matthew McConaughey is an excellent actor, but for most of his career he was playing a lot of similar roles because people assumed that he couldn’t do anything else. As soon as he was given the chance on Dallas Buyers Club and True Detective, people were like ‘holy crap, he is amazing!’, but the truth is he was always amazing, he just didn’t get to showcase it.”
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