MAKING MOVIES ABOUT THE PROPHET
guardian.co.uk, Monday 2 November 2009 11.00 GM
Matrix producer plans Muhammad biopic
Barrie Osborne, part of the Oscar-winning team behind the Lord of the Rings films, says the new production ‘will educate people about the true meaning of Islam’
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Producer Barrie Osborne cast Keanu Reeves as the messiah in The Matrix and helped defeat the dark lord Sauron in his record-breaking Lord of the Rings trilogy. Now the Oscar-winning American film-maker is set to embark on his most perilous quest to date: making a big-screen biopic of the prophet Muhammad.
Budgeted at around $150m (£91.5m), the film will chart Muhammad’s life and examine his teachings. Osborne told Reuters that he envisages it as “an international epic production aimed at bridging cultures. The film will educate people about the true meaning of Islam”.
Osborne’s production will reportedly feature English-speaking Muslim actors. It is backed by the Qatar-based production company Alnoor Holdings, who have installed the Muslim scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi to oversee all aspects of the shoot. In accordance with Islamic law, the prophet will not actually be depicted on screen.
“The film will shed light on the Prophet’s life since before his birth to his death,” Ahmed Abdullah Al-Mustafa, Alnoor’s chairman, told al-Jazeera. “It will highlight the humanity of Prophet Muhammad.”
The as-yet-untitled picture is due to go before the cameras in 2011. It remains to be seen, however, whether it will be beaten to cinemas by another Muhammad-themed drama. Late last year, producer Oscar Zoghbi announced plans to remake The Message, his controversial 1976 drama that sparked a fatal siege by protesters in Washington DC. The new version, entitled The Messenger of Peace, is currently still in development.
AND THIS IS THE MOVIE THAT SPARKED THE FATAL SIEGE….
Controversial biopic of Muhammad set for remakeThe Message, Moustapha Akkad’s Gadafy-backed 1976 film of the life of the prophet that sparked the Hanafi Muslim Siege, is to get a Hollywood remake
Xan Brooks guardian.co.uk, Monday 27 October 2008 15.23 GMT Article history
Getting the message out … Moustapha Akkad (kneeling) directing The Message in 1976. Photo: Everett Collection/Rex Features
It was one of the most controversial films of the 70s: an English-language biopic of the prophet Muhammad that was bankrolled by Gadafy and went on to trigger a fatal siege ahead of its US premiere. Now The Message could be set for a grand return to the fray courtesy of a 21st-century Hollywood remake.
Producer Oscar Zoghbi, who worked on the original, today announced that the new version – entitled The Messenger of Peace – was currently being scripted by Ramzi Thomas and would film in locations around the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. “We have only the utmost respect for [the original film] but technology in cinema has advanced since the 1970s,” Zoghbi said in a statement. “This latest project will employ modern film techniques in its renewal of the first film’s core messages.”
“In the 21st century there is a real need for a film that emotionally engages audiences on the journey that led to the birth of Islam,” added Ramzi Thomas.
Directed in 1976 by the late Moustapha Akkad, The Message starred Anthony Quinn as an Arab follower of Muhammad and was funded by the Libyan leader Muammar Gadafy. In accordance with Muslim conventions forbidding any visual depiction of the prophet, Muhammad is never seen or heard in the film. Instead, Akkad opted to signify his presence with light organ music and occasionally framed the film from the prophet’s point of view as he observed the actions of his followers. Two versions of the picture were shot – one in Arabic and the other in English.
Speaking at the time, the Syrian-born Akkad claimed that he made The Message because he wanted to explain the teachings of Islam to a western audience. “I think there was something personal, being a Muslim myself who lived in the west, I felt that it was my obligation, my duty, to tell the truth about Islam,” he said. “It is a religion that has a 700 million following, yet it’s so little known, which surprised me. I thought I should tell the story that will bring this bridge, this gap to the west.”
The film’s depiction of Islam won praise from the High Islamic Congress of the Shia in Lebanon. However, The Message sparked controversy in the US when it was rumoured that Quinn was starring as Muhammad. In March 1977, 12 members of the Black Muslims organisation stormed three buildings in Washington DC, taking 149 people hostage and demanding that the film be destroyed. The notorious Hanafi Muslim Siege resulted in the deaths of a police officer and a radio reporter, while council member – and future mayor – Marion Barry was wounded by a shotgun pellet. The hostages were eventually released after a 39-hour stand-off.
According to Akkad, “the film’s American box-office prospects never quite recovered from the unfortunate controversy.”
After making The Message, Akkad went on to produce the successful Halloween horror franchise and direct Anthony Quinn, Rod Steiger and John Gielgud in the 1980 epic Lion of the Desert, which was again funded by Gadafy. Akkad and his daughter were killed in an al-Qaida attack on luxury hotels in the Jordanian capital, Amman, in 2005.
It remains to be seen whether The Messenger of Peace will be able to equal the impact of its forefather. A spokesman for the producers suggested to Reuters that the film’s funding and production schedule had yet to finalised, promising that details would be announced “in due course”. It is not known whether Gadafy will again be involved.
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