The Kingdom is a 2007 film directed by Peter Berg and starring Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Ashraf Barhom, with Kyle Chandler, Jeremy Piven, Richard Jenkins and Ali Suliman. The film is fictional, but inspired by bombings at the Riyadh compound on May 12, 2003 and the Khobar housing complex on June 26, 1996, in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The story follows a team of FBI agents who investigate the bombing of a foreign-workers facility in Saudi Arabia. Screenwriter Matthew Michael Carnahan has summarised the plot as "What would a murder investigation look like on... Mars?” The film was screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival as its yearly 'Surprise Movie' on 22 August 2007. The opening scene of the movie explains the origins of U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relations and how the discovery of energy resources has transformed the Middle East through a timeline sequence. It portrays the conflicts that have risen since the late 1940s for the rightful ownership of the oil industry. This includes the Persian Gulf War in Iraq and al-Qaeda's growing network of terrorism.
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| Release date: | August 22, 2007 |
| Directed by: | Peter Berg |
| Rated: |  |
| Runtime: | 109 Minutes |
| Producer: | Scott Stuber, Michael Mann, Tim Smythe |
| Editor: | Colby Parker Jr., Kevin Stitt |
| Music by: | Danny Elfman |
| Cinematography: | Mauro Fiore |
| Screenplay by: | Matthew Michael Carnahan |
| Estimated budget: | $80,000,000 |
| Genre: | Thriller, Action |