Saturday, September 8, 2012

Mustapha Akkad and the making of “THE MESSAGE”


In my desire to mention Mustapha Akkad; I needed to make few clicks on google search that confused me because I thought for quite long time that Mustapha Akkad was the creator of the Friday the 13th from a magazine article I read in the very early 80’s. Either it was the writer who was confused or it was me who misread the article. It was the “Halloween” series not the “Friday the 13th” that that he created but there was another I am sure I was right and Wiki was wrong.

According to Wikipedia; Mustapha Akkad produced and directed “Muhammad; Messenger of God” that in some countries was shown as “The Message” in 1976 while the “Halloween” was created in 1978. It is not possible because according to the article i read; Mustapha Akkad created and produced the “Halloween” movie as independent with 60,000 dollars which was the only money he had. Surprisingly; it became a hit where he netted 6,000 million dollars and in the 60s and 70s; 6 million dollars was huge.

He became an instant celebrity in Hollywood that eventually led to the making of “The Message” and the “Lion of the Desert” meaning the Halloween movie came first. It was some kind of a flagship to get noticed.

He used the money he earned from the “Halloween” to make “The Message.”

Very ironic and sad; he was killed along with his daughter and other guests while attending a wedding reception at a hotel in Amman Jordan in 2005 by a suicide bomber. 


(full movie)

Akkad was born July 1, 1930 in Aleppo, Syria. His father, then a customs officer, gave him $200 and a copy of the Quran before he left for the United States to study film direction and production at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

§  Halloween (1978)
§  Lion of the Desert (1980)
§  Halloween II (1981)

Source: Wikipedia




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