Early today, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy officially announced that Episode VII is filming right now in Abu Dhabi. We have been hearing rumors of this for awhile now, and lasts weeks clapper board helped, but since it is official lets take a look at this filming location.
Abu Dhabi is a city in the country of United Arab Emirates, also know as UAE. This city is on an island in the northeastern part of the Persian Gulf, but is only 250 meters off the central mainland coast. Below are some facts about the city from official Abu Dhabi tourism page, click the source link for more information.
Abu Dhabi is the largest and most populated of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates, with over 80% of its landmass. The emirate’s population, now over 1.6 million, is expected to reach 3 million by 2030. Across the UAE, Emirati citizens make up nearly 20% of the total population; the other 80% are expatriates from Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe and North America.
The UAE is four hours ahead of UTC (Co-ordinated Universal Time – formerly known as GMT) and there is no daylight saving. Hence, when it is 12.00 midday in Abu Dhabi, it is 3am in New York, 8am in London, 10 am in Johannesburg, 1.30pm in New Delhi, and 6pm in Sydney (not allowing for any summer time saving in those countries).
Temperatures range from a low of around 13C (50F) on a winter’s night, to a high of around 42C (118F) on a summer’s day. The cooler months, November to April, are the most pleasant time to visit, when temperatures are around 24C (75F) during the day and 13C (56F) at night.
Arabic is the official language, although English is widely spoken and most road and shop signs and restaurant menus are in both languages. The further out of town you go, the more Arabic you will find, both written and spoken. Arabic isn’t the easiest language to pick up, or to pronounce, but if you can throw in a couple of Arabic words here and there they will be warmly received.