Two rival Muhammad biopics coming

Two epic movies are now in the works about the life and teachings of Muhammad, the prophet and founder of Islam. This is a surprising bit of news, given the Islamic prohibition against depicting Mohammad, his seven wives, his daughters or his sons-in-law visually or verbally. (You may recall the controversy a few years back when the South Park guys tried to depict Muhammad in an episode. They publicly feuded with Comedy Central, but eventually the episode aired without the brief scene that would have featured Muhammad.)

Barrie Osborne, one of the producers of both The Matrix and Lord of the Rings, has announced his plans to make an epic, $150 million film about the life and teachings of Muhammad. Producer Oscar Zoghbi, meanwhile, plans to remake The Message, his 1976 film about Muhammad.

The original Message is one of the more peculiar historical epics you’ll encounter. The film chronicles the life of Muhammad from when Gabriel presents him with the Koran to his death, and yet Muhammad himself never appears. How does the film achieve this tricky feat? Mostly through the efforts of the hard-working Anthony Quinn as one of Muhammad’s followers, who delivers great gobs of exposition and literally addresses the camera as if it is Muhammad, occasionally nodding in response to the words of the Prophet.

The stuff that went on behind the camera was at least as odd as what went on before it; Muhammad Ali lobbied for the role of Bilal but was turned down; financing problems left the crew stranded in a non-air-conditioned Moroccan hotel for two miserable weeks until Muammar al-Gaddafi came through with the financing; and the entire film was shot twice, with two different casts, in English and in Arabic. And after all that effort to be as respectful as possible, the film was still banned in many Middle-Eastern countries and led to the Hanafi Muslim Siege in Washington DC, in which 12 members of the Black Muslims organization took 149 people hostage and demanded that all prints of the film be destroyed. Their stand-off with police ended 149 hours later, with the hostages released but a cop and a radio reporter dead.

Osborne told Reuters that he sees his production as "an international epic production aimed at bridging cultures". But in a move sure to be controversial with Westerners, the new film's production company, Alnoor Holdings, has brought Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi aboard to advise the shoot. He's the al Jazeera commenter who has called Jews a "profligate, cunning, arrogant band of people" and described the Holocaust as the divine will of Allah.

(Some portions of this post originally appeared several years ago in an article I wrote for OC Weekly.)

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