Moustapha Akkad

Salam,

I just thought of writing a little word in the memory of Moustapha Akkad, the director of the film "The Message" (Al-Rissala), who died, along with his daughter, in the bombings that hit hotels in Jordan last month. He was born in Aleppo (Halab), Syria, and was buried there as well.

The different articles written about him aren't many, and are unfortunately often conflicting or missing huge portions of information. I learnt about him through a few interviews on TV and in magazines, but he never seemed to have gotten the attention he deserved.

My whole understanding of the beginnings of Islam owes to his film "The Message". He brought it all to life again. He shot the film in an english version alongside the arabic one in order to portray the true face of Islam to the West. He also directed the film "Lion of the Desert" which tells the story of Omar Mukhtar's fight against the Italian occupation of Libya in WWII (the film was funded by Mu'amar Al-Qadafi).

He was in the midst of creating a film about Saladin (Salah El-Deen) before his tragic death. He was struggling to raise $80M dollars to fund it. The script was there, and Sean Connery was to star as Saladin. The period of history the film would have dealt with recounts events similar to what the arab-muslim world is going through right now, and so none of the arab countries accepted his plea for financial support (as he explained in an interview).

His other well-known venture is the "Halloween" horror series, which he mainly thought of as a source of funding for the immensely costly historical epics he dreamed of making. He had also dreamt of establishing a production company that would specialize in making religious historical epics.

For him to have dreamt of becoming a filmmaker in the aim of creating Islamic epics testifies to his genuine love for Islam, but to have continued down that road after making it in Hollywood hits me as being extremely rare and touching... He will be greatly missed.



Moustapha Akkad
(1933 - 2005)
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Message 4 of 7 in Discussion
From: houari_
Sent: 1/2/2006 10:58 AM
Salam,
I heard that his first movie in Hollywood was about Algeria (about the war against the French occupation ), but this movie has never made its way to the screen for some unknown reasons...Please let us know if you have information about this movie...Thank you.

J'ai entendu que son premier film en Hollywood était au sujet de l'Algérie (au sujet de la guerre contre la France), mais ce film n'a jamais ete sur l'écran pour quelques raisons inconnues... svp envoyez nous quelques infos sur ce film...Merci.
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Sent: 1/6/2006 7:34 PM
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From: i_am_an_island_85
Sent: 1/7/2006 1:51 AM
My last message:

Salam,

Excuse-me, but I didn't see your message tilll now. The film about the Algerian war against the French occupation was actually never made. Early on in his career, Moustapha Akkad made documentaries for CBS. The network sugggested to Akkad the Algerian war as a concept for a new documentary. But just as the concept got into either the production planning stage or the production stage, the war ended, and the project got called-off. I vaguely remember the details. Akkad explained this in an interview a very long time ago, and I recall a script of that interview was published in an article following his death in November, 2005. I've just searched for it, but I can't seem to find it. I hope it hasn't gone into the archives yet. I'll post the link if I find it.

Update:

I'm still searching for the script of the interview in which Moustapha Akkad explained the story of this film project. However, I've come across one reference to it being a project director Sam Peckinpah (known for Westerns) was working on and took interest in Akkad because he's from the region, appointing him as an assistant on the project. I find this confusing because this director has nothing to do with CBS, and I recall him mentioning a CBS proposal in that interview. There is no doubt, however, that the project was abandoned because the war ended - I clearly remember Akkad saying it was never even made. As I've mentioned before, there are many conflicting articles about his life and work, so I hope I'll find the interview or some other reliable source to backup all these details.