The Associated Press reports that one of the victims of the triple hotel bombings in Jordan a couple days ago — though he actually died in a hospital a little while later — was Moustapha Akkad, producer of the Halloween (1978-2002) franchise.
The article also mentions that, before he launched the slasher genre, Akkad produced and directed a film about the life of Mohammed in 1976 — two films, actually, since he shot al-Risâlah in Arabic and The Message, starring Anthony Quinn and Irene Papas, in English. This was followed by Lion of the Desert (1981), which starred Quinn as a Muslim who fought back against Italy’s occupation of Libya during World War II.
Because Muslim tradition prohibits depictions of Mohammed and even his immediate family, The Message — despite being all about the life of Mohammed — never shows him or them. But, reports the AP, the film was still controversial in Muslim circles:
“The Message” was declared sacrilegious by a group of black American Muslims, who took hostages in three Washington, D.C. locations when the movie opened in the United States in March 1977, demanding it not be shown in America.
Akkad said he was baffled by the reaction to the movie, which he said cost $17 million to make. It also was nominated for an Academy Award for best original score.
“I did the film because it is a personal thing for me. … Being a Muslim myself who lived in the West, I felt that it was my obligation, my duty to tell the truth about Islam.
“It (Islam) is a religion that has a 700 million following, yet it’s so little known about, which surprised me. I thought I should tell the story that will bring this (history) to the West,” he added.
Akkad said he turned to the horror genre because it was hard to raise money for religious-themed movies, according to a 1998 New York Times report.
Reportedly, both of Akkad’s historical epics were produced by the terrorist-friendly Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, but I wouldn’t necessarily hold that against Akkad or his films; you look for financing wherever you can find it. But it does kind of add a sad, ironic footnote to the news regarding his death at the hands of his fellow Muslims, which was sad and ironic enough as it was.
Wikipedia reports that Akkad was working on producing a movie about Salah-ad-Din — a Muslim figure, popular in the West, who was recently depicted in basically positive terms in Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven but arguably ought to be seen from a Muslim point of view. (Which reminds me, I still want to see Youssef Chahine’s Saladin, 1963.) So that’s yet another opportunity lost.
UPDATE: The AP has a new version of the story here.
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