Return of rom-coms

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WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TONIGHT

THIS EVENING: CBE + KIA to offload stakes in AAIB. Plus: No cyberattack at Fawry

Good afternoon friends and Happy Thursday. The week has ended with privatization updates entering our news cycle alongside the conflict dominating our region and headlines.

THE BIG STORIES TODAY

Fawry denies it faced a cyberattack: E-payments giant Fawry did not experience a cyberattack earlier today, the company said in a disclosure (pdf) to the EGX, denying rumors that were circling on social media and WhatsApp that customers’ personal information was exposed in a hack. The company conducted security tests and did not find evidence of a data leak, according to the disclosure.

CBE and KIA to divest stakes in AAIB? The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) and Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) are each set to offload a 20% stake in the Arab African International Bank, an informed source told Enterprise. The CBE and the KIA each own a 49.4% stake in AAIB, according to the lender’s latest published annual report (pdf). The sellers are looking to divest their shares on the EGX and to strategic investors. The news was first picked up by Arab World Press.
Correction on 11 November 2023: An earlier version of this story miswrote the Arab African International Bank as the Arab African Investment Bank.

Remember: AAIB is on the government’s list of 35 state-owned companies geared for privatization.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

Updates on Israel’s onslaught of Gaza and highlights of the GOP debates are dominating the headlines in the international press. The US attack on a weapons depot in Syria utilized by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard yesterday is reportedly a result of attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria. The United Nations’ Chief of Human Rights has also accused Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes calling for a ceasefire. (Bloomberg | Reuters)

The GOP debates in Florida by five republican candidates vying for the campaign run instead of Trump steered the conversation as they undermined the former president on several policies as their way to win votes over to their camps. (Associated Press | Washington Post | Wall Street Journal)

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

We need a foreign currency liquidity buffer of between USD 8-10 bn to get through the FX crunch and go ahead with a successful float in the coming months.
Standard Chartered will open in Egypt by the end of this year: British multinational lender Standard Chartered Egypt expects to begin operations by the end of 2023.
Some of us have been given yet another reason to quit: State-owned tobacco giant Eastern Company published a new price list for its tobacco products starting today that raises prices between 12% and 33%.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Expect a high of 29°C during the daytime and a drop to 20°C in the evening, according to our favorite weather app. There might be some rain and dust storms across the nation today and possibly continuing over the weekend, tells us the Egyptian Meteorological Authority.

Hollywood is back in business after SAG-AFTRA strikes end + Noise pollution is a threat to our health

After four months of SAG-AFTRA strikes, Hollywood is finally back in business. The actors guild reached a tentative agreement with Tinseltown executives yesterday that will see the films rolling soon.

More than 600k union members went on strike on 14 July, alongside screenwriters from the WGA, who had been striking since May. It was the first time in over 60 years that both unions were on strike at the same time.

The US movie capital had been reportedly taking advantage of loopholes and new technology, using the murky legalease of streaming networks and digital doubles to avoid paying royalties. Execs granting SAG-AFTRA their demands would add USD 22.2 mn to the expenses of each studio per annum — only 2% of their yearly revenue.

There are still a few I’s to dot and T’s to cross before the picket signs are retired for good.The agreement’s details will be released in the coming days, and SAG-AFTRA’s full membership will vote on it. While there still is a slim chance that the deal will be rejected, the union’s negotiating team unanimously approved it and called off picketing.

Hollywood must be breathing a sigh of relief as it heads into its award season, as the end of the strike means we will be seeing actors on the red carpet, promoting their movies in interviews, instead of on the picket line.

Noise pollution will wreak havoc on your physical and mental well-being, explains National Geographic. Chronic exposure to distributive and excessive noises can cause a plethora of problems: Starting with heart disease, sleeping disorders, elevated blood pressure, depression and anxiety, particularly when the source of the noise can’t be controlled or stopped.

ALSO- Prolonged exposure to high-intensity sounds can damage the fine membranes in our nerves and bones, cells, potentially leading to hearing loss.

BY NUMBERS- Long-term exposure to noise pollution is responsible for causing around 48k new cases of heart disease each year in Europe, according to a 2022 study published in the Harvard Medical School magazine.

Disrupting our sleep is the issue. Noise negatively affects the quality and quantity of sleeping hours of approximately 6.5 mn people in Europe. Since our ears never sleep — we can thank our fight or flight responses for that — being this aurally stimulated can disrupt your sleep which is when your body tries to reset itself.

Noise pollution levels are not the same everywhere, and what one group constitutes as noise may be classified as just sounds to another. It is also not about where you live: Noise pollution may not only persist in urban areas, surprisingly, rural settings can exhibit comparable or even louder noise levels.

Stop the damage with noise-canceling headphones. But using the same devices to play music and videos that shut off the world outside can lead to injury or hearing damage.

White noise can also help. If you have white noise playing while sleeping to eliminate other sounds can help you sleep better. More noise-cancellation touches such as double-layered glass windows, thicker doors, and acoustic tiles can all contribute to a quieter environment and lead to that rest our bodies need.

Pain Hustlers is for viewers who couldn’t get enough of Pain Killer

? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-
(all times CLT)

The face of big pharma just got a lot better looking. With audiences hooked on the rush of recent films and TV series following big pharma and America’s opioid crisis, Pain Hustlers is the latest attempt at exposing the greed and cynical practices of the industry.

The story is loosely based on the real life pharma scandal involving the rise and fall ofInsys Therapeutics. Director David Yates, known for his work on the Harry Potter franchise, is at the helm of this dramatized account following a struggling single mom who finds a solution to her cash problems by pushing prescriptions.

The film stars Emily Blunt and Chris Evans as attractive pharma reps and features cuts to documentary-style interviews with the characters as a key storytelling technique. Despite its predictable plotline, Blunt’s performance as Liza Drake is impressive enough to get you to buy into this drama.

You can catch the film onNetflix.

Catch a rendition of Tawfiq al-Hakim’s Bank of Anxiety this week and next. It follows two friends who establish a private bank that uses anxiety as the currency. The play is scheduled from today through Thursday at the Malak Gabr Arts Theater at AUC’s New Cairo campus, and Wednesday-Sunday, 15-19 November at the Falaki Theater at AUC’s Tahrir campus. Admittance is unpaid, but you will be required to show a photo ID.

The Christmas Charity Bazaar will bring on the season’s warmth on Saturday, 1 December at All Saints’ Cathedral, Zamalek. The bazaar will start from 10:30am until 4pm. Note, the event’s revenues will be given to a variety of charitable organizations in Egypt.

What the markets on 9 November, 2023

The EGX30 rose 1.36% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 4.43 bn (75.9% above the 90-day average). Local investors were net buyers. The index is up 66.5% YTD.

In the green: CIB (+4.1%), Telecom Egypt (+3.8%) and Edita (+3.5%).

In the red: Fawry (-4.6%), E-Finance (-3.8%) and Credit Agricole (-2.7%).

Is the age of cheesy rom-coms dawning once again? The late 2000s saw the quiet death of the genre, alongside other mid-budget projects, in favor of MCU-sized blockbusters. There was the odd attempt to revive it here and there, but it seemed like Hollywood had turned its back on the good old fashioned romantic comedy.

In the 90s it was almost impossible to avoid the genre. The likes of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally, Notting Hill, and even the later 2000s iterations like 27 Dresses, The Proposal, The Holiday, and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days had an absolute chokehold on the box office. Then, poof. The reason? Money.

While romantic comedies didn’t disappoint at the ticket booth, they simply did not generate Marvel-sized revenue or Oscar buzz. Nancy Meyers, one of the legendary rom-com giants and the mind behind What Women Want and The Holiday, faults the superhero genre for the death of the mid-budget film industry. Hollywood was fixated on releasing blockbuster after blockbuster, even if the odd USD 100+ mn project struck out. And if they weren’t after the benjamins, they kept an eye out for award-worthy scripts.

Another factor may have more to do with stereotypes (and sexism). “Rom-com” became synonymous with “chick-flick,” which was only said in derision to dismiss the integrity of a movie. Actresses like Kate Hudson and Sandra Bullock found themselves pigeonholed within the genre, unable to book other roles. On the other hand, male rom-com veterans Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant, and Matthew McConaughey were able to break away and pursue more creative endeavors.

Once people started to realize that tropes that make up the backbone of rom-coms didn’ttranslate well in real life, it was difficult to enjoy and romanticize men stalking women and manipulating them into a relationship, people falling for someone else’s fiance (or their fiance’s brother), and the moral of the story being that the missing thing in a woman’s life really was a man after all. Instead of reformulating rom-coms to bypass these tropes, Hollywood decided to deinvest in them altogether.

But we see a glimmer of hope in the closing distance, a chance that the classic romantic comedy will make a tasteful comeback — and it comes in the shape of 90s rom-com queen Meg Ryan.

Ryan will be starring alongside David Duchovny in What Happens Later. The plot of the film (watch trailer, runtime: 2:35) borrows from classic rom-com tropes of lost love, second chances, and most importantly: Being stuck somewhere together, unable to leave. (Incidentally, the last is how a lot of horror movies start too.) While stuck together in a snowed-in airport, ex-lovers Willa (Ryan) and Bill (Duchovny) conduct a post-mortem examination of their relationship.

Hindsight is 20/20, especially in the movie industry. Ryan told Entertainment Weekly that she’s using her comeback as a chance to explore the depth of the genre, using her directorial expertise to examine themes of aging and regret. Working with rom-com icon Nora Ephron on You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, and When Harry Met Sally means Ryan knows which beats to play — and which to deflect.

According to Ryan, rom-coms are an “incredible delivery system to comment on the times,” and that’s what she says they’ve done with What Happens Later. While a rom-com given is that “the guy gets the girl,” Ryan says their movie leaves more space for questions and tension. “Will they be together? Will they not be together?” she asked EW. “[What Happens Later] sort of evolves the rom-com genre a little bit.”

Ryan partnered with novelist Sally Franson to develop the plot over several months. A big question they asked themselves was how the genre needed to evolve to shake off the cobwebs of badly aging clichés. Diversity has been a big buzzword as of late, and Ryan decided to test the waters to see if there was an appetite to see mature couples grasping at connection. The answer was a resounding yes, if the emergence and success of The Golden Bachelor is any indication.

But Hollywood’s reluctance to invest in rom-coms still meant that even Meg Ryan had to scramble to get a Meg Ryan rom-com greenlit. The film had a budget of a measly USD 3 mn, reportedly garnered only after a lot of called-in favors. They even had to forgo test screenings, meaning that Ryan is hinging the film’s success solely on her instincts.

With Ryan at the helm of this project, she may be able to steer the genre into its renaissance. By delivering the wholesome and reliable content audiences have been looking for in modern attempts while avoiding the pitfalls of yore, rom-coms might just get a happily ever after.

THE ENTERPRISE ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR

NOVEMBER

26 October-18 November: Forever Is Now Exhibition, Pyramids of Giza.

6-18 November (Monday- Saturday): The Ibero-American Film Week, Zawya cinema, Downtown.

8-11 November (Wednesday-Saturday): Sound and Light Show at The Giza Pyramids.

9 November (Thursday): Khaled El Nabawy’s live interview, Arab Music Institute theater, Ramses

9 November (Thursday): Music For Palestine concert at Cairo Jazz Club 610.

9-10 November (Thursday-Friday): Ali Mama Play at the Falaki Theater.

10 November (Friday): Tamer Ashour’s concert, Zed Park Sheikh Zayed.

10 November (Friday): Hisham Abbas ft. Anis concert at Cairo Jazz Club 610.

10 November (Friday): Son Candela concert at The Tap East.

10 November (Friday): Vannitronix concert at El Gouna.

11 November (Saturday): Ali Elhaggar live interview and performance,Arab Music Institute theater, Ramses.

11 November (Saturday): El Gouna Half Marathon 2023, El Gouna.

11 November (Saturday): El Gouna Half Marathon.

11 November (Saturday): Paper Recycling Workshop at Cocoon Cultural Center.

11 November (Saturday): Russell Peters stand-up comedy show, The Marquee Theatre, Cairo Festival City Mall.

14-15 November (Tuesday-Wednesday): Destination Africa Expo at Royal Maxim Palace Kempinski.

15-24 November (Wednesday-Friday): Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF).

16 November (Thursday): ELFIT Sports and Fitness Games at New Capital Sports City.

23 November (Thursday): Saad ElOud Concert at Arkan Plaza.

25 November (Saturday): Masr El Gedida Carnival at Maryland.

26 November (Sunday): Souad Massi concert at Tap East.

DECEMBER

1 December (Friday): Cairo Fun Festival by Bike Zone Egypt in Heliopolis.

1 December (Friday): The Christmas Charity Bazaar, All Saints’ Cathedral, Zamalek.

EVENTS WITH NO SET DATE

2023: The inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum.

Q1 2024: Opening of the newly developed Pyramids Plateau in Giza.

2024

JANUARY

7 January (Sunday): Coptic Christmas.

25 January (Thursday): Revolution Day.

APRIL

9 April (Tuesday): Eid El Fitr (TBC).

25 April (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Sinai Liberation Day (TBC).

MAY

1 May (Wednesday): National holiday in observance of Labor Day (TBC).

5 May (Sunday): Coptic Easter.

6 May (Monday): Sham El Nessim (TBC).

JUNE

15-19 June (Saturday-Wednesday): Eid El Adha (TBC).

30 June (Sunday): June 30 Revolution Day (TBC).

JULY

7 July (Sunday): National holiday in observance of Islamic New Year (TBC).

23 July (Tuesday): Revolution Day (TBC).

SEPTEMBER

15 September (Sunday): National holiday in observance of Prophet Muhammad’s birthday (TBC).

OCTOBER

6 October (Sunday): Armed Forces Day.

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