Barrie Osborne, one of the producers of The Matrix and Lord Of The Rings movies, has announced plans to make a $150 million English-language biopic of the Prophet Muhammad, examining his life and teachings.
Osborne evisages it as, “an international epic production aimed at bridging cultures. The film will educate people about the true meaning of Islam.” The as yet untitled movie will be 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, to ensure it fits with Islamic teachings.
Of course, one of those teachings is that there should be no images of the Prophet himself, which gives the filmmakers the rather unique challenge of making a movie about someone who can never been shown (or probably heard) on screen. Despite this, they hope to shed light on the Prophet’s life, from before his birth to his death and highlight his humanity.
This is actually the second Muhammad biopic that’s been set in motion in recent months, with producer Oscar Zogbhi working on a remake of the 1976 Anthony Quinn starring look at the birth of Islam, The Message (where again the Prophet himself was never seen). That film proved controversial and was banned in some Muslim countries, which didn’t like the idea of the Prohet’s story being told on screen in any form. There was also a fatal incident in Washington DC several months before the film was released, where the Black Muslim Organisation took 149 people hostage and demanded the film be destroyed, as they believed Quinn was playing Muhammad himself, rather than his uncle. On the other hand, the film’s depiction of Islam won praise from the High Islamic Congress of the Shia in Lebanon.
These new biopics, despite the unusual filmmaking challenge of not being able to show Muhammad himself, certainly have a noble intent, with the hope that they will educate non-Muslim people in the West about Islam beyond the extremists views we often hear about on the news.
The Osborne produced biopic is unlikely to start filming until 2011.