Hollywood producer could bring Arab hero Saladin to the silver screen

menareport.com ^

[chance33_98]

Hollywood producer could bring Arab hero Saladin to the silver screen

Zeidan Consultancy, a Middle East public relations consultancy, revealed that it is in talks with Zinkler Films of Hollywood to produce a motion picture on the life of the Arab world’s historic hero Saladin El Din Al-Ayubi.

Zeidan Consultancy plans to film and produce parts of the movie in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) due to the attractive media infrastructure and suitable film locations for this project.

“World class movie production costs, excluding actors fees, start at $30 million. To our knowledge this would be the first Hollywood movie to be filmed in the UAE and we are also talking to interested local investors who may wish to invest in the success of this movie venture…” commented CEO of Dubai based Zeidan Consultancy, Monal Zeidan.

Zinkler Films is a leading movie production company based in Hollywood, California. Zinkler assists foreign production companies and producers in packaging, distributing and jointly financing movie ventures. — (menareport.com)

[LibWhacker]

Gonna boycott it.

[Billthedrill]

The Turks'll love it. Saladin was a Kurd.

[SouthernFreebird]

Yeah, I'm sure there's a big demand for Arab films...like we have nothing better to spend our money on.

[Paul Atreides]

Meanwhile, the American military is filmed as thieves and dopeheads.

[correctthought]

This'll be a big hit in the correctthought household

/sacasm >

Isn't there a movie like this out already? I believe the islamist hoardes are lead by their great leader Sauron.

[joesnuffy]

Hooper and his boyze down at CAIR have got to get busy trying to promote themselves as heros and victims- They need a muslim version Ahhhnold
Here's the some of the real deal CAIR has to try to spin damage control on -imo

Daniel Pipes writes.......

Howls of rage went up after the Joint Terrorism Task Force, guns drawn,
arrested Maher Hawash in the parking lot of an Intel
Corporation facility in March 2003 and placed him in solitary
confinement. The protests intensified as prosecutors detained him
without
charges for over a month in an Oregon jail while they pored over the
evidence.

Given Maher Mofeid "Mike" Hawash's biography, this all came as a
particular shock, for he personified the American success story.

A Palestinian born in Nablus in 1964 and reared in Kuwait, Hawash
arrived in the United States in 1984, earning degrees in electrical
engineering at the University of Texas. He went on to work for Compaq in
1989 and became a US citizen in 1990.

His career at Intel began in 1992, where he worked on video
technologies. When his father fell ill he got Intel to transfer him to
its plant in
Israel, where he lived for two years. He married Lisa Ryan in 1995 and
fathered two children. In 1997 he published a well-received
book on video graphic formats with the prestigious scientific press
Addison-Wesley.

Hawash had achieved much by 2000. He worked at one of the world's
greatest companies, earned nearly $360,000 a year, had a
circle of friends, and was admired for his volunteer activities.

But that same year, neighbors reported to the FBI, he became noticeably
more devout. He grew a beard, wore Arab clothing, prayed
five times a day, and regularly attended mosque. He also became
noticeably less friendly.

Further inquiry found that Hawash paid up his house mortgage (interest
payments go against Islamic law) and donated over $10,000
to the Global Relief Foundation, an Islamic charity subsequently closed
for financing terrorist groups.

Early in 2001, he went on pilgrimage to Mecca. And "Middle Eastern
males" were seen coming and going from his house.

Friends and co-workers condemned such information as "guilt by
association." Nothing in Hawash's actions, they insisted, justified his
incarceration as a material witness to terrorism, and they boisterously
made their views known. They launched FreeMikeHawash.org
and wrote letters to the editor. They set up a legal defense fund and
staged protests on the streets of Portland, Oregon.

HAWASH'S FORMER boss at Intel, Steven McGeady, became his media champion
internationally, portraying Hawash as an
average Arab-American with a job and a family. McGeady dubbed the arrest
"Alice in Wonderland meets Franz Kafka" and
dismissed the charges against Hawash as "baseless" or "completely
insane."

Supporters filled northwest newspapers with alarms. One professor
portrayed Hawash's incarceration as "part of a consistent pattern
of suppression of civil liberties." Columnists and letter writers
compared the US to a "Third World country," Orwell's 1984, Nazi
Germany, or the Soviet Union. Militant Islamic groups like the Council
on American-Islamic Relations saw in Hawash's arrest
"serious damage" to the standing of American Muslims.

Hawash's high-powered career and supporters together turned him into the
symbol of the pious Muslim victimized by a biased and
overzealous justice system.

And then, on August 6, this whole illusionary edifice came crashing
down: Hawash pleaded guilty to conspiring to help the Taliban. He
also agreed to cooperate fully with the prosecution and waived his right
to appeal his conviction and sentence. In return, the
government dismissed the other counts against him.

How did his supporters take this stunning news? A media search turns up
not a single mea culpa. Instead, they responded with denial
and silence. "I don't know if I feel betrayed. I'm not dwelling on that
now," said one of his staunchest sympathizers. "I want to hear
directly from him before I believe it," said another.

At the August 6 hearing, reports the Oregonian newspaper, "the throngs
of friends and supporters who publicly protested on Hawash's
behalf at previous hearings" were noticeably absent. Militant Islamic
lobby groups lost their voice.

In short, while Hawash confessed to his crime, his supporters refused to
admit their mistakes.

There are two lessons here. First, profiling can work. Alert neighbors
reporting on militant Islamic-appearing activities brought Hawash
to law enforcement's attention.

Second, sympathizers of terrorist suspects are entitled to express
surprise and tell heartwarming stories about them. But shrill
charges of racism, ignorant insistence on the suspects' innocence, and
appalling comparisons to Nazi Germany impede the US
government's efforts to protect Americans.

The writer is director of the Middle East Forum and author of Militant
Islam Reaches America.


From Daniel Pipes

[Destructor]

There's a better chance that I would go see the Dixie Chicks than watch any Arab movie!

[longtermmemmory]

No, but remember hollywood accounting is very very creative. They would milk the funding from an Arab "investor". The production quality exepected would be very low so more fees and expenses can be charged.

All the up front people will make money regardless of the movie turning a profit.

[ClearCase_guy]

I have not seen this movie. They won't invite me to the private screenings. But I can say this: this movie will incite hatred against Christians. Saladin's military difficulties will be unfairly blamed on Christian Crusaders, and an increase in violence and intolerance will result.

I want to see the script and have input as to how some of this information is presented.

[chance33_98]

I don't have a copy of it actually :)

[Lady Heron]

It will be a big hit. Overseas

[chance33_98]

So...how many of you have thrown out or burned your kids' copy of Disney's Aladdin yet?

If your point is to say that because a movie has an arab style theme someone is against than I would say you are wrong, at least with respect to this thread.

It deals with the frustration people get in how the leftist hollywood types like to portray every faith and group in a good and victim like light while bashing christians and conservatives. That is all fine and good, but if I make a movie about mass murderers and they are all arabs, gays, etc the left would say I was inciting hatred and violence - something they seem to think it is ok to do themselves.

[chance33_98]

Who said anything about a conspiracy?

[Bobby777]

wonder if somebody will make a docu-drama film about 9/11/2001 and bring together all that happened that day ... it would be painful, but it did happen ...

[chance33_98]

I think out of the thousands of movies that are released with the thousands of mesagges and themes, you start to see a pattern where there is none.

There is a difference between conspiracy and trend. And while there are thousands of movies the only ones that count are ones that address the relevant issues - ie how they depict characters who happen to fall into a certain category.

Example, the 13th warrior depiction of a muslim versuses a movie which shows someone as a christian. Christians are generally depicted in what one would term a negative light - which is fine, movie makers are free to do as they wish as it is their money.

When someone is depicting homosexuals in a negative light (ala radio talk show hosts frequently mentioned) the left gets all panicky and says such things cause hate, but you don't see them complaining if a group they don't like is seen as bad, perhaps because they want to foster hate towards that group or it's values.