Last summer, a con man and former PCP chef calling himself “Sam Bacile” convinced some struggling actors to join his ultra low-budget production of “Desert Warrior,” which he filmed on soundstages and later redubbed with anti-Muslim content, re-titling it Innocence of Muslims and putting out a 14-minute trailer to a complete movie that may not even exist. The trailer spawned violent, deadly protests across the middle east, and now an entire country is boycotting the Academy Awards. If there were a Nobel Prize for trolling, Sam Bacile (aka Nakoula B. Nakoula) would surely win it. Of course, the victory would be bittersweet, as he would be informed via letter bomb.
Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Hosseini (pictured, with Ice Cream Vaughn) has said that Iran will boycott the 2013 Oscars in protest over the Academy Awards’ silence on the production of an anti-Islam video in the United States.
CONDEMN HARDER, ACADEMY!
“I officially announce that we will avoid next year’s Oscars as a serious response to the intolerable insult to the Prophet of Islam (S),” Hosseini said during the opening ceremony of a film festival in Kerman on Monday evening.
“Since the insulting film has been made by an American in the United States and no comment has been made about the film by the officials of the Academy Awards, we have decided to boycott the event,” he stated.
Well, actually, Nakoula Nakoula was born in Egypt, but no need to split hairs when we’re talking about sky cake.
Hosseini also called on other Islamic countries to boycott the Oscars in response to the production of the film. The board had previously selected Reza Mirkarimi’s family drama “A Cube of Sugar” as Iran’s submission to the Oscars. [TehranTimes]
Egypt and Libya have not yet submitted their selections, though the deadline isn’t until October 1st. And so it goes that the chief of culture in Iran is punishing Americans for a so-called American’s negative portrayal of Muslims by denying us the right to view or champion positive portrayals of Muslims. Funny how stupidity tends to snowball in the wake of a crisis, isn’t it?
Meanwhile, I do wonder why The Academy didn’t just come out and condemn Innocence of Muslims. It’s not hard to see that it was a sucky movie. I think what may have happened is that they initially put Brett Ratner in charge, but he didn’t want to practice his statement because rehearsal is for fags, so then they fired him and hired Billy Crystal to do it, and Billy Crystal was still in the middle of a 40-minute musical tribute to Douglas Fairbanks when the Iranians pulled the trigger on their boycott. Cultural differences, man. What’re ya gonna do?