Investors Sought for $131mn Birth of Islam Movie
ARABIAN BUSINESS: Investors are being sought for a major new $131 million film being produced depicting the birth of Islam.

The producers of The Messenger of Peace have appointed Dubai-based Millennium Finance Corporation to attract a limited number of "high quality co-investors" for the project, it was announced on Thursday. 



Production of the film, which will reach a global audience of both Muslims and non-Muslims, is expected to start in early 2009. The producers will start an investment roadshow throughout the GCC region shortly.

The Messenger of Peace will be only the second movie of its kind on the subject of Islam, whereas more than 30 major films have been made about the early history of Christianity. 



Films based on religious subjects have been largely successful in the history of film. 



The Message is still much in demand today after more than 30 years since its release, while Mel Gibson’s 2004 film Passion of the Christ was a big box office hit. 



In addition to global distribution channels which cover the US, Europe, Asia, Africa and Middle East markets, the producers intend to reach out to people through merchandising channels to help alleviate many misgivings about Islam and to make the venture commercially very successful. 



The film’s investment vehicle will have full control over all revenues. >>> By Andy Sambidge | October 30, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>

Film-Trailer: Anonyma - Eine Frau in Berlin

TIMESONLINE: German War Film A Woman in Berlin Opens Old Wounds over Red Army Rapes

The gruff phrase “Komm Frau!” – Come, woman! – still sends shivers down the spines of elderly Germans. It was the command given by Russian soldiers as they prowled Berlin and other bombed-out postwar German cities, searching for women to rape.

The hidden horror of those months is about to be revealed in a new German film, A Woman in Berlin, that is likely to shock the nation, stir resentment against the Russians and provoke a debate about morality in war.

The film is based on a diary written by the German journalist Marta Hillers. She began to scribble it in a dusty cellar on Friday April 20, 1945 – Hitler’s birthday, the last before his suicide ten days later.

Within days of the occupation she had been raped several times by Red Army soldiers, one of many hundreds of thousands of German women abused in this way. It was the crime that no one talked about. >>> Roger Boyes in Berlin | October 21, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Taschenbuch) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Gebundene Ausgabe) >>>

Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Geert Wilders's New Anti-Islam Film

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Nervousness in the Dutch Expat Community because of Geert Wilders’ Film
RADIO NETHERLANDS WORLDWIDE: Dutch people living abroad are worried about the effects of right-wing politician Geert Wilders' anti-Qu'ran film. In recent weeks Dutch embassies have been busy making emergency plans, a move which many people have judged as an over-reaction. However, Dutch expats in Islamic countries in particular say that they are already having problems as a result of comments made by Wilders and that they are beginning to fear for their personal safety.

More than 1000 Dutch participants in Radio Netherlands Worldwide's World Panel - all of them living outside the Netherlands - have responded to questions put to them about the commotion surrounding the Wilders' film, which has yet to be released. 

The Dutch embassies' fears of a possible violent reaction seem to have escaped the attention of the majority of the respondents. However, of those living in Islamic countries, nine percent say they had been approached by or received relevant information from their embassy.

For the rest, most of the Dutch expats seem fairly calm and believe the media have devoted too much attention to Mr Wilders' comments. Furthermore, there was no talk of any of them returning - temporarily or otherwise - to the Netherlands in connection with this issue.



Danger


Geert Wilders, leader of the new Freedom Party, has been major news in the Netherlands for weeks with his anti-Qu'ran film, even though no one has seen a single second of it and it's not yet known where and when it will be released. 



For many people, though, they simply have think back to what happened following the release of Theo van Gogh's film Submission in 2004. He was killed by an extremist Muslim several months later. 



Many Dutch expats are concerned about their own position and no fewer than nine out of ten believe that Wilders' has put his own life in danger too. Around half of the respondents to the RNW survey warn that Dutch firms could soon be boycotted as a result of the film. 



A somewhat smaller percentage fears that there could also be attacks on Dutch targets. However, the most remarkable finding concerns the number of Dutch citizens in Islamic countries who say they are already facing problems or even danger in connection with Geert Wilders: 43 percent.

Politics

Even in Islamic countries, however, the majority of the expats who responded to the survey believe that Wilders should be able to say whatever he wants and that the Dutch government should not take action against the film. While they think that his statements are indeed polarising Dutch society and offensive to a large group of people, nearly two-thirds believe that he is only saying what most people think. Wilders and his film worry Dutch expats >>> By Perro de Jong

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Dutch Government Ready for Wilders’ Film Fall-Out
DUTCH NEWS: Government security experts have drawn up a 20-page document detailing how to deal with the expected fall-out of the anti-Koran film being made by MP Geert Wilders, the Volkskrant reports on Friday.

The paper says the document, marked 'state secret' has been circulated to need-to-know ministers only.

There are also instructions for diplomatic staff so that they will be ready to deal with protests and embassy evacuation plans have been drawn up, the paper says.

Ambassadors in Islamic countries are currently talking to their contacts about the film. While stressing that freedom of speech is an important in the Netherlands, they are also making it clear that Wilders’ opinions are not shared by the government, the paper says.

The film is due to be screened at the end of the month. [Source: Government ready for Wilders’ film fall-out]

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Dutch Government Fears Violence over Geert Wilders’ Film
Photo of Geert Wilders courtesy of Google Images
THE GUARDIAN: The Dutch government is bracing itself for violent protests following the scheduled broadcast this week of a provocative anti-Muslim film by a radical right-wing politician who has threatened to broadcast images of the Koran being torn up and otherwise desecrated.

Cabinet ministers and officials, fearing a repetition of the crisis sparked by the publication of cartoons of Muhammad in a Danish newspaper two years ago, have held a series of crisis meetings and ordered counter-terrorist services to draw up security plans. Dutch nationals overseas have been asked to register with their embassies and local mayors in the Netherlands have been put on standby.

Geert Wilders, one of nine members of the extremist VVD (Freedom) party in the 150-seat Dutch lower house, has promised that his film will be broadcast - on television or on the internet - whatever the pressure may be. It will, he claims, reveal the Koran as 'source of inspiration for intolerance, murder and terror'.

Dutch diplomats are already trying to pre-empt international reaction. 'It is difficult to anticipate the content of the film, but freedom of expression doesn't mean the right to offend,' said Maxime Verhagen, the Foreign Minister, who was in Madrid to attend the Alliance of Civilisations, an international forum aimed at reducing tensions between the Islamic world and the West. In Amsterdam, Rotterdam and other towns with large Muslim populations, imams say they have needed to 'calm down' growing anger in their communities.

Government officials hope that no mainstream media organisation will agree to show the film, although one publicly funded channel, Nova, initially agreed before pulling out. 'A broadcast on a public channel could imply that the government supported the project,' said an Interior Ministry spokesman. Violence fear over Islam film: Counter-terrorism alert as a Dutch right-winger launches a movie that will denounce the Koran >>> By Jason Burke, Europe editor

AFP:
Unease in the Netherlands over MP’s planned anti-Islam film

Geert Wilders:
Geert Wilders’ official website (in Dutch)

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)