'Suits' comes to Cairo, as Arabic version of US series set to launch in Ramadan

After five years, cameras are rolling on an Egyptian remake of New York legal drama 'Suits' - with only five months to prepare the first series before broadcast to Arabic-speaking audiences in Ramadan

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab Staff

07 January, 2022

An Arabic version of the "Suits" series will launch next Ramadan [Getty]

Filming of a forthcoming Arabic version of the hit US legal drama Suits has begun over five years since a contract was first signed.

Posting on Facebook from the set, Egyptian producer Tarek El Ganainy announced that the cameras were finally rolling - with the series due to launch in Ramadan, which falls in April this year.

The remake will be set in a Cairo legal firm, instead of in New York, and will be an “adaptation, not a translation” of the US.version for Arabic audiences according to El Ganainy.

The originalseries is set in a fictional New York City law firm, where protagonist Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) joins top lawyer Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) as an untrained assistant - without any legal background but a natural flair for the world of law.

The Arabic remake cast-list boasts big names of Egyptian cinema including Asser Yassin (Messages from the Sea, The Promise) and Ahmed Daoud (Sons of Rizk, Zay El Shams), and was scripted by Mohamed Amin Radi, the Suez-born writer most known for his work on “Friendly Fire”, and “Seven Commandments”.

The contract for filming, signed in December 2016 by Egypt’s TVision Media Production, purchased the rights from NBC Universal for a multi-series hit show. The Suits franchise continues to grow with a remake for Korean audiences being launched in 2018.