Nakoula Basseley Nakoula has had plenty of time on his hands to think about the violent unrest that his crude 14-minute YouTube video, Innocence of Muslims, caused, and he has no regrets. Nakoula, who's stewing in a Los Angeles jail because he violated the conditions of his probation stemming from a fraud conviction unrelated to the movie, told the New York Times in an interview "that he would go to great lengthys to convey what he called 'the actual truth' about Muhammad.' more »
Mark Basseley Youssef, the California man behind Innocence of Muslims, is going to prison, although not for the Islam-goading movie he made.
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This idea came to me before I actually saw Argo on Tuesday night, but now that I have seen Ben Affleck's gripping, well-directed film, I can't let it go. When I learned about the plot of the movie — in which a CIA agent (Affleck), a Hollywood make-up artist (John Goodman) and a movie producer (the wonderful Alan Arkin) — gin up a fake movie to rescue a group of diplomats trapped in Iran during the hostage crisis — it struck me that Argo was the inverse or the flip side of another fake movie that got a lot of press this past summer: Innocence of Muslims. more »
Also in Thursday morning's round-up of news briefs, Kristen Stewart's Snow White and the Huntsman tops disc sales. An Islamist in Pakistan demands anti-Islam filmmakers be turned over. And, a Pink Panther star dies.
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More Muhammad pics are in the planning stages and this time, they may include cinematic quality. By now, just about every filmmaker or aspiring filmmaker knows that it's a full-on major taboo to depict the Prophet Muhammad in a movie. That rule doesn't just apply to the recent low-budget video that appeared on YouTube, Innocence of Muslims, which didn't exactly depict the Muslim prophet in the best of light, but any depiction is absolutely forbidden among Muslims or anyone else for that matter, at least according to the raging crowds that have rioted for the past two weeks in front of American missions around the Muslim world. But while depictions of Muhammad have remained mostly absent in Hollywood and Western movies throughout the decades, the anti-Islam pic may have had the unintended (or not) effect of opening up a floodgate - or at least a trickle - as at least two filmmakers are looking to make separate pics featuring the prophet, and if all goes according to plan, their budgets will likely be higher.
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Also in Wednesday morning's round-up of news briefs, Brazil makes a move to ban Anti-Islamic film in its borders. After Rupert Wyatt exits Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Fox comes up with possible short-list. And an aging gay drama set for New York Film Festival premiere becomes the Philippines' entry for Oscar.
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Digging into the rabbit hole of a mystery that is the inflammatory, anti-Muslim film Innocence of Muslims — the amateurish viral trailer for which set off protests and violent attacks in at U.S. embassies in Libya, Egypt, and other cities this week — Vice Magazine and Gawker have fingered the man they believe directed the project last year in California. Did industry veteran Alan Roberts (AKA Robert Brownell), a B-movie director and editor behind cult/softcore Cannon/Golan & Globus-era schlock Karate Cop, The Sexpert, and The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood, make the incendiary anti-Muslim screed?
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Steve Klein says there's no blood on his hands.
In the aftermath of violence in Libya over the virulently anti-Islam video Innocence of Muslims initial media reports pointed to a Coptic Christian filmmaker named Sam Bacile, the pseudonym for Egyptian immigrant Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. But according to an A.P. report, Klein, a California insurance agent and Vietnam War veteran, has become the unrepentant public face of the crude video that has resulted in the deaths of four American diplomats, including America's Ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens.
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The New York Times reported Friday morning that Google had made the controversial decision to block access to the inflammatory anti-Islam video, Innocence of Muslims, in Egypt and Libya, where the crude production had sparked anti-U.S. riots and violence that resulted in the deaths of four American diplomats, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stephens.
According to the Times, Google, which owns YouTube where the clip is posted, did not remove the video from its site because its policy is to remove content only if it is deemed "hate speech," or "if it is responding to valid court orders or government requests." Based on company guidelines, the Internet behemoth determined that Innocence of Muslims "was not hate speech," the paper reported, but Google still made the exceptional decision to block access to the video in Egypt and Libya in response to the violence and killings.
In the wake of this extraordinary decision by an American company to censor content, Movieline wants to hear from you. Take the poll after the jump and tell us if Google's actions were warranted, or if, in your opinion, even more decisive action is required. more »
A trailer for a little-known anti-Muslim film that went viral on YouTube sparked outrage and violent attacks overnight at the U.S. Embassy in Libya that left over a dozen wounded and four Americans dead, including U.S. ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens. In a press conference today President Obama condemned the acts and promised justice to those responsible, said to be Muslim protesters angry over insults against the Prophet Muhammad made in a film called Innocence of Muslims.
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