Director Nadine Labaki will be joining George Khabbaz, Adel Karam and Diamand Bou Abboud with Egyptian star Mona Zaki and Jordan’s Eyad Nassar in the upcoming Arabic remake of the Italian comedy Perfect Stranger.

The remake will be produced by Medusa Film, Leone Film Group and Lotus Productions, the original comedy-drama grossed more than $20 million at Italian box office and $31 million internationally in 2016. In 2018, Manaolo Caro directed the Mexican version Perfectos Desconocidos.

The premises of the movie is about seven longtime friends who gather for a dinner party on the night of a total eclipse and agree to play a game where each person read the messages on their cell phones. At first this seems like an easy harmless game but as the night goes the calls and messages become more risqué.

The Arabic remake will be set into recent events with the dinner party set in Lebanon and during the pandemic. CEO Gianluca Chakra hopes that this remake will bring a new era for Middle Eastern cinema. “We’ve seen Egyptian films, Lebanese films, Saudi films, but never an Arab film. The Middle East has never produced a successful pan-Arab film as audiences are different across each country and so is the audience,” said Chakra.

The film is set to be released in 2021 across the Middle East.