John Gielgud

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Controversial biopic of Muhammad set for remake

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.IslamReligionguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Published: Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:23:41 GMT - Source: Guardian.Co.Uk - Read the article

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Bennett donates his life's work to the Bodleian library

The scholarly work of one of the world's most famous libraries keeps being interrupted by cackles of laughter, as staff in the Bodleian at Oxford University get to grips with their latest treasure: a free gift of Alan Bennett's entire archive.While other writers or their heirs have made fortunes selling archives - only this week the British Library announced the £500,000 purchase of the papers of the late poet Ted Hughes - Bennett, one of the best-loved writers in English, is giving his archive out of affection for Oxford and in passionate defence of free state-funded education. It includes his manuscripts, diaries, letters and, on his death, all remaining papers and his working library, including hundreds of inscribed first editions of his own and other books."I really feel that Oxford is where I was educated and where I belong, and that if Bodley would like them, then they should have them," Bennett told the Guardian. "It sounds rather grand to say I can afford to, but libraries in England anyway are not well-endowed; they don't have much money. Me and my partner, we're relatively well off, and so I felt I didn't really want to take money for them."To say the Bodleian would like them is a serious understatement. Sarah Brown, the library's American director, said: "I'm absolutely thrilled about Bennett's papers and his message. His gift is inspirational.""We keep pinching ourselves, we still can't really believe it," said Richard Ovenden, associate director of the library, his desk covered in sheets neatly typed on the ancient manual typewriter Bennett bought for a few pounds from Age Concern in Settle, and then corrected, scored out, annotated and amplified in a blizzard of pencil and red, green purple and black ink. "Actually, that's a point - we must get that typewriter."Library staff have started catalogueing 30 years of diaries, of which extracts became a bestseller, and various drafts of The Madness of George III, which became the Oscar-winning movie partly filmed in the Bodleian. They also have the script of The History Boys, which won awards as stage play and film. Also included is his first great stage success, Forty Years On, which ran for more than a year in London from 1968, starring Sir John Gielgud: the title page reveals it could have been called Speak for England, Albert.Bennett was originally prompted by a former Bodleian chief librarian, David Vaizey, a friend since they met as undergraduates, and said yesterday that he saw the gift as a debt repaid."I was educated free right from the start. I was educated free in Leeds where I went to a state school, and then I got a scholarship to Exeter College Oxford, and so at no point did my parents or me have to pay anything for my education. "One didn't have much money, but one never really gave money a thought because you had just about enough to be going on with. Now that's a situation that students today can only dream of, really."In that sense giving the manuscripts to Bodley - it sounds rather pious - is a kind of small recompense for what I was given. And not merely given by Oxford, I also feel I was given it by the state, and the state isn't something that people would normally thank or think well of and hence the phrase 'the nanny state'. "I was nannied in the sense that everything was paid for, the Leeds education committee gave me a scholarship and then I had another scholarship later on: now if that's being nannied, I'm all for it."Oxford has recently led the demand for the elite universities to charge massive top-up fees: Bennett drew a firm distinction between his support for the library he loves and the university administration."I've differed from the university on other things, on their soliciting money from Rupert Murdoch, for instance. But the library is something separate, and however well-endowed the Bodleian is, it's like other libraries; it's strapped for cash, so I don't really think that applies. The philosophy of the library and the philosophy of the university are probably not the same."Already Ovenden and Chris Fletcher, head of western manuscripts, have collected a mass of papers, sorted for them into 100 box files in Bennett's north London home. They accepted a cup of tea, put them in the car and drove off, quivering with excitement. "I'm actually quite glad to see the back of it," Bennett said.In the archive? Unpublished manuscripts, including School Farce, with his note "written while waiting for Forty Years On to be put on, not published or (thankfully) produced"? The script for The Vicar's Wife, a proposed film with the late Ned Sherrin, which contains this exchange from the scene The Funeral Tea:"Could I have some rock salt, please?"Waitress: "What dear?"Minerva: "Rock salt. I don't want any salt with all the goodness taken out of it"? Manuscripts and drafts of all his stage, television and radio plays? Thirty consecutive years of almost entirely unpublished diaries - the rest will come to the library after his death - and manuscripts of autobiographical writing, including Writing Home and Untold Stories? Manuscripts of all his published novellas and short storiesAlan BennettUniversity of Oxfordguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Published: Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:16:40 GMT - Source: Guardian.Co.Uk - Read the article

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