<Tr> <Th> Budget </Th> <Td> $14.4 million </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $34.6 million </Td> </Tr> <P> Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is a 2011 British romantic comedy - drama film directed by Lasse Hallström and starring Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, Kristin Scott Thomas and Amr Waked . Based on the 2007 novel of the same name by Paul Torday, and a screenplay by Simon Beaufoy, the film is about a fisheries expert who is recruited by a consultant to help realize a sheikh's vision of bringing the sport of fly fishing to the Yemen desert, initiating an upstream journey of faith to make the impossible possible . The film was shot on location in London, Scotland, and Morocco from August to October 2010 . The film premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival . The film received generally positive reviews upon its release, and earned $34,564,651 in revenue worldwide . </P> <P> Fisheries expert Alfred Jones (Ewan McGregor) receives an email from financial adviser Harriet Chetwode - Talbot (Emily Blunt), seeking advice on a project to bring salmon fishing to the Yemen--a project being bankrolled by a wealthy Yemeni sheikh and supported by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office . Alfred dismisses the project as "fundamentally unfeasible" because Yemen cannot provide the necessary environment for salmon . Meanwhile, the British Prime Minister's press secretary Patricia Maxwell (Kristin Scott Thomas) suggests the salmon fishing story to the Prime Minister's office as a positive story to help improve relations between Britain and the Islamic world . </P>

Is salmon fishing in yemen based on a true story