New movie planned about the life of Mohammed.
(Really, what more do I need to tell you? We should all just set up “Mohammed movie” Google Alerts, then stick popcorn makers right by our computers for the next year or two.)
So how do you solve a problem like Mohammed, who can’t be depicted according to sharia?
Well, the Mo-Bio HAS been done before, with The Message (1976), and with oh-so-predictable results:
Read More...Because excising the Prophet from his own story would be impossible, Akkad was forced to make a film whose protagonist was, in effect, absent. A Muslim himself, Akkad knew what was at stake — no one had ever successfully attempted a play, much less a film about the Prophet. If he pulled it off, he’d be the cinematic voice of the Muslim world.
If not, they might literally kill him. (…)
Akkad’s solution was simple: Shoot around the protagonist .(…)
But the Arab world was already playing telephone with news of Akkad’s film, mangling facts with fiction and topping the finished rumor with a dash of cross-cultural bias. The rumor was that a Mohammed movie would be made, starring a big-name American celebrity. And since it involved the Americans, who were sure to add insult to sacrilege, then obviously Charlton Heston was in the title role of the Prophet. The final, distilled word-of-mouth amounted to, “Screw you and your huge religion, America is making a movie starring Moses as Mohammed.”
This didn’t sit well with the devout. Bomb threats were already being called in, so Akkad hired four Islamic clerics to oversee the production, trying to quash any unfounded rumors. Shooting began in Morocco, with a sprawling replica of ancient Mecca and the requisite cast of thousands. But soon enough, the clerics quit — though they retained writing credits, a perfect film industry paradox.
