COMMENT | "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World" |  |
Movie studio not amused by Muslim-themed comedy film
If Sony Pictures had it's way, moviegoers wouldn't be "Looking For Comedy In The Muslim World" this January. Should studios be afraid of mixing Islam with humor?
By Shahed Amanullah, October 3, 2005
If you thought that Hollywood had no sensitivity to the way Muslims were portrayed in film, you'd be wrong. Not because there rate of Muslims being portrayed as terrorists has slowed down, but because a major studio is trying to save us from being portrayed as being funny. Sony Pictures refused to release a film by comedian and filmmaker Albert Brooks entitled " Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World" unless the word "Muslim" was removed from the title. (They suggested "Looking for Comedy" instead.) "I do believe that recent incidents have dramatically changed the landscape that we live in," explained Sony chairman Michael Lynton in a letter to Brooks, "and that this, among other things, warrants changing the title of the film." The film stars Brooks (as himself), who is recruited by former US Senator Fred Thompson (also playing himself) to go to India and Pakistan to find out what makes Muslims laugh. It makes fun of self-obsessed Hollywood types, hapless State Department officials, and American ignorance of the Muslim world - but, according to Brooks, should be inoffensive to Muslims. "I steered clear of religion in this movie," said Brooks. "The whole point of the movie is looking for comedy, not looking for God." While the studio did not give reasons other than the title for the rejection, the move happened after the Guantanamo Qur'an desecration furor, and with the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh (of "Submission" fame) still fresh in Hollywood's memory. The film has been subsequently picked up by the smaller Warner Independent label and will be released in January, and Sony has gone on to approve less controversial films for distribution. (For example, "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo," which features a Chernobyl victim with a penis for a nose.) "Whenever I heard anyone talk about Muslims, it was in association with terrorism," explained Brooks. "There had to be some way to separate the 1.5 billion people who don't want to kill us from the 100,000 or so who do."
Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.
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I am all for humor. It is refreshing that they are looking into things other than religion or politics as there is soo much more to the Muslim world than these two.
I will be seeing this one for sure. Will
Salam.
- Posted by anmar on October 3, 2005 at 06:37 PM
American studio executives: "wait theres a whole muslim WORLD? i thought it was just a few countries... better keep the lid on this one."
- Posted by ruxana (california) on October 7, 2005 at 04:31 AM
American studio execs: "muslim public? Thats not a viable market for us at this point in time. Nice badguys haven't been doing well at the box office. We could always do with good script for Aladdin part 2 - freddy versus Genie"
- Posted by Ghulam (South Africa) on October 7, 2005 at 06:41 PM
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Recent and upcoming talks and offsite articles by altmuslim contributors
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Islamophonic: Review of the year, Riazat Butt, Zahed Amanullah and David Shariatmadari, Cif Belief (The Guardian), December 18, 2009.
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Media appearances and analysis featuring altmuslim editors
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US Muslims & media… Lost love - "We have a big problem; it’s that other people are shaping the story about us," Shahed Amanullah, editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com, told IslamOnline.net. (December 16, 2009)
Moves to Seize Mosques Spark Outrage - "I'm extremely skeptical that the link between these mosques and this organization is so strong as to merit the seizing of a considerable amount of assets that do a lot of good for the Muslim community," says Shahed Amanullah, a prominent Muslim blogger based in Austin. "The government better be prepared to make a very good case, because this is unprecedented." (November 17, 2009)
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