Moustapha Akkad
Moustapha Akkad Biography
IMDb
Moustapha Akkad. Producer: Mohammed - Der Gesandte Gottes. Syrian-American Moustapha Akkad produced a series of "Halloween" movies but it was Omar Mukhtar - Löwe der Wüste (1980) and Mohammed - Der Gesandte Gottes (1976), on the history of Islam, into which he poured his heart. It was reportedly difficult for him to make it in Hollywood but no one could deny his talent as a director and producer. He was...
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IMDb
Moustapha Akkad was born in Aleppo, Syria in 1930. He developed a passion for movies at an early age which is why, at age 19, he wanted to go to the States and follow his dream. When he left Syria, his father gave him the money for the ticket and a copy of the Qura'an, telling him it was all he could manage. In the USA, he studied theatre arts at UCLA and got his masters from USC. He started his professional work in TV where he did a biography on the different ethnic groups in the States and how their backgrounds affect their lives in America.

NBC offered him a better salary if he chose not to put his name on the project, and this is where he learned a great lesson. In 1976, he made his first feature film, Mohammed - Der Gesandte Gottes (1976), where he directed and produced; the film was about the birth of Islam starring Anthony Quinn and Irene Papas. The film did not score at the American box office because the face of the prophet Muhammad (the main character in the movie) could not be shown due to religious reasons, but it did well world-wide.

In 1978, John Carpenter came to him with the screenplay for Halloween - Die Nacht des Grauens (1978) and Akkad produced it while Carpenter directed it. The movie was a big success. In 1981, he went back to directing when he directed Anthony Quinn again in Omar Mukhtar - Löwe der Wüste (1980), a movie funded by Muammar Gaddafi; the movie did not score at the box office. It was about Libyan freedom fighter Omar Al-Mokhtar and Libyans' fight for freedom against the colonizing Italians, and was his last directorial project.

After that, he went back to producing sequels in the Halloween franchise. In 1995, he decided to make a film about the life of Saladin, the great Muslim leader who fought the crusaders, but was unable to get the appropriate funding. On 9 November 2005, he and his daughter were killed in a terrorist attack in Amman, Jordan. As a director, his work was greatly influenced by David Lean (Lawrence von Arabien (1962)) but he had his own amazing touches.