An ex-con Coptic Egyptian immigrant now living in Cerritos, California, named Nakoula Basseley Nakoula seems to have partnered with a small charity called Media for Christ to produce the anti-Islamic film now fueling protests around the globe. Media for Christ — whose outspokenly anti-Islamic president, Joseph Nassralla Abdelmasih, is also an Egyptian immigrant and Christian — secured a permit for the movie to shoot for one day at Blue Cloud Movie Ranch in Santa Clarita. Other scenes were shot right in Nakoula’s home, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Meanwhile, two people who worked on the set tell Gawker that the the film’s director, whose real name may or may not be Alan Roberts (and who Vice seems to think is a Robert Brownell), seems to have been utterly clueless. “He was a directorial hack, he didn’t know basic things,” Eric Moer, who served as an electrician and grip for the film, tells Gawker. “It was very unprofessional.” In fact, it’s not even clear whether, like the actors and crew, the director even knew what kind of movie he was making, which, as Gawker’s Adrien Chen points out, would probably be a film-making first.
