American actor Michael Kelly has spoken about the warm welcome his production team received while filming Dubai sequences for the new instalment of the hit franchise, Jack Ryan: Ghost War, made for Prime Video. A significant portion of the season's action was shot on the city's skyscrapers.
Kelly, who plays the character Mike November, said one of the toughest moments of the shoot involved a stunt roughly 40 storeys above the ground, where he had to cross a metal grate toward a crane. Despite a long-standing fear of heights, he said he found himself gripping railings tightly without even realising it during filming.
Reflecting on the city's hospitality, Kelly said: "They welcomed us with open arms here to do Jack Ryan, and we felt the love from the minute we got here."
The season's plot brings the show's characters to Dubai on an intelligence mission that puts them up against a rogue operation. Kelly stars alongside John Krasinski, who plays Jack Ryan and also directs this instalment, along with Wendell Pierce as James Greer and Sienna Miller as MI6 officer Emma Marlow.
Kelly credited his close working relationship with Krasinski for shaping his character more deeply over the course of the series, adding that he has already pitched the idea of a spin-off centred on his own character.
The Dubai shoot is the latest example of a major Hollywood production choosing the emirate as a backdrop, reinforcing its growing reputation as a sought-after filming location for international studios looking for dramatic urban skylines and logistical support for large-scale action sequences.