There's a Saudi Arabian version of The Office and it looks identical to the US version
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The Office fans are flooding to social media in stitches over the Saudi Arabian version of the sitcom.
Al Maktab - a.k.a. the Arabic version of The Office - was first announced as being in the works early last year.
MBC Studios and BBC Studios partnered up to produce the 20-episode show which began filming in June, 2022.
Clips of Al Maktab have already been widespread online.
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Andre Renaud, the senior VP format sales for BBC Studios, told The Hollywood Reporter: "Although office working may look slightly different for many of us in 2022, the familiarity of these well-observed characters as they navigate petty rivalries, moments of friendship and humour, and a boss that sometimes makes a fool of themselves still rings just as true,
“I’m sure audiences in the Middle East and the Gulf will take Malik and his team to their hearts as much as audiences did with David Brent in the UK over 20 years ago.”
And fans of the original British version of The Office - written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant - as well as the successful US version have flocked to social media in excitement over the latest version of the show.
A Twitter user shared clips from the Saudi version of The Office's fire drill scene, alongside a recording of Al Maktab's version of the CPR scene.
One person replied: "Even though I don’t understand what’s being said, they did a phenomenal job at recreating the scene."
The clip-sharer then responded: "It’s much of the same as the American office for this scene except with the turtle where he tells the other dude that if he dies the turtle needs to be fed organic food."
It also left many people asking where they could watch the series.
"I can’t understand a word but I must see the entire series." someone else said.
Another said: "I just learned last week that this was a thing. Can't wait to binge this."
And one avid viewer didn't even need subtitles to know what was happening: "Without speaking the language, I feel relatively confident that Turtle Man was giving Ceiling Man complicated instructions about how to care for his very spoiled turtle."
Even one of the actors, Fahad Albutairi, replied to the tweet.
He wrote: "Thank you so much for sharing this. We actually had to shoot this episode last in the season, because we already knew we were gonna tear down the set doing it… which we did."
He also added that the second half of the series episodes would be 'complete originals' like 'the one about Tinder'.
The poster responded: "LMFAOOOO this was one of my favourite episodes you guys saved the best for last and I loved the tinder episode it was definitely something different and funny especially in Arab societies you guys balanced tackling the dating scene all while doing it in a humorous way."
This isn't the first time The Office has been remade in other countries, with India, Chilean and French versions also existing.
You can watch Al Maktab on Shahid later this year.
Featured Image Credit: @dexerto/Twitter/NBCUniversal Television Distribution
Topics: The Office, TV and Film, US News, World News, Twitter, Social Media
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