Qaddafi’s son funding Hollywood movies including Mickey Rourke’s next film

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

This is JoBlo.com, where we talk about movies and video games and superheroes and show pictures of girls in skimpy clothing, so we don’t talk about political current events, like the unrest in Egypt or Libya, very often. But today, the controversy surrounding Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi has now crossed over into the world of Hollywood and we’ve got something to talk about.

What do you do when you’re the son of a despotic and insanely wealthy leader of a country? If you’re Al-Saadi Qaddafi, seen here big pimpin’, you take your money to Hollywood and try to become a big shot producer. The Qaddafi family is reported to be worth some $60 billion (take that Mark Zuckerberg!) and Al-Saadi has taken some of pop’s money and invested it in Natural Selection, a production company based out of Los Angeles.

Said one source familiar with Al-Saadi and the business, “This son is quiet and legitimate and less political,” than his father. As for why a production company would accept funds from a potentially dubious and controversial source as the son of a ruler linked to numerous terrorist acts around the world, the same source said, “It’s hard to get money to invest in films.” (Stop and read that quote again.)

Among the projects using Qaddafi money include THE ICEMAN, the story of mafia hitman Richard Kuklinski, which has Mickey Rourke attached to star and ISOLATION, a thriller starring Eva Amurri.

To be fair, Al-Saadi is not the same brother as Saif al-Islam who earlier this week said, “If we do not agree today on reforms, we will not be mourning 84 people, but thousands of deaths, and rivers of blood will run through Libya.” Though, also in fairness, Hollywood would probably take his money too. After all, it’s really hard to get money to invest in films.