Principal photography has commenced in Morocco on Tom Tykwer’s A Hologram For The King starring Tom Hanks.

Sarita Choudhury, Omar Elba, Tracey Fairaway, David Menkin and Tom Skerritt have joined the cast and the shooting is scheduled to take place in Morocco and Germany until June.

Uwe Schott and Stefan Arndt of X Filme Creative Pool produce with Arcadiy Golubovich and Tim O’Hair of Primeridian and Hanks and Gary Goetzman of Playtone in Association with Silver Reel Entertainment and Fábrica de Cine.

Eggers, Steven Shareshian of Playtone, Claudia Bluemhuber of Silver Reel, Gaston Pavlovich of Fabrica de Cine and Bill Johnson and Jim Seibel of Lotus International are the executive producers. 

Lotus introduced the picture at AFM in November and handles international sales while CAA represents US rights. X Verleih will distribute the film in Germany.

Tykwer adapted the screenplay from Dave Eggers’ novel about a desperate businessman who flees to an ambitious Saudi Arabian city in a last bid to stave off bankruptcy, pay for his daughter’s education and reinvent himself.