By NANCY TARTAGLIONE
http://www.deadline.com/2012/09/latest-on-the-anti-muslim-filmmakers-that-sparked-mid-east-violence/
(...)– Purported writer, director and producer Sam Bacile has no credits on any movie industry database. SAG-AFTRA tells Deadline they have no information about the film and the DGA confirms they have no Sam Bacile on record.
– A man calling himself Bacile spoke by telephone from an undisclosed location with news outlets on Tuesday. He was alternately reported to be a 52-year-old Israeli-American real estate developer in California and a 56-year-old Israeli Jew.
– Records searches in the U.S. turned up nothing on a Sam Bacile, media outlets report and Yigal Palmor, spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, told The New York Times, “He is totally unknown in filmmaking circles in Israel.”
– A casting notice for a film called Desert Warrior that ran in Backstage last year and which is believed to be the original advertisement for the film, lists the producer as “Sam Bassiel.” It also lists a director, Alan Roberts.
–The BBC says a film believed to be Innocence Of Muslims, but called The Innocence Of Bin Laden, screened at Hollywood’s Vine Theatre on June 30. An attendee said the film lasted an hour with just a few people there. He claimed the organizer was an Egyptian living in the U.S.
– The YouTube profile ‘Sam Bacile’ was used to post clips of the film on July 1 and posted comments as recently as Tuesday this week. It lists the age of the account holder at 74.
– Bacile said he raised $5M from about 100 Jewish donors to make the film.
–Steve Klein, a self-described militant Christian activist in Riverside, Calif., told CNN he worked with Bacile on the movie and said the filmmaker had gone into hiding. But he told The Atlantic on Wednesday that Bacile is a pseudonym.
(...)–A man identified as Nakoula Basseley Nakoula told the AP that he was manager for the company that produced the movie and said he knew Bacile. But the cell phone number the AP had for Bacile traced back to the address where the wire agency inteviewed Nakoula.
CNN received a statement from the 80 or so people in front of and behind the cameras denouncing the film they say they worked on without knowing it was propaganda. The statement reads:
“The entire cast and crew are extremely upset and feel taken advantage of by the producer. We are 100% not behind this film and were grossly misled about its intent and purpose. We are shocked by the drastic rewrites of the script and lies that were told to all involved. We are deeply saddened by the tragedies that have occurred.”
Cindy Lee Garcia, an actress who appears in clips of the film on YouTube, told Reuters she answered a casting call last year for Desert Warrior. She said shooting took place inside a church near L.A. in the summer of 2011. About 50 actors were involved, she told Reuters. Garcia said her character was forced to give away her child to a character named Master George, who is listed in the casting call. But in scenes from the trailer, Garcia’s lines appear dubbed over with another voice referring to Mohammad rather than George.
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http://www.deadline.com/2012/09/latest-on-the-anti-muslim-filmmakers-that-sparked-mid-east-violence/
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http://www.deadline.com/2012/09/latest-on-the-anti-muslim-filmmakers-that-sparked-mid-east-violence/