Porn director pegged as man who shot now-infamous anti-Islam film
According to the cast and crew of "The Innocence of Muslims," the man previously thought to have directed it – Nakoula Basseley Nakoula – was just the producer. The moviemaker, it turns out, is known for his work in soft-core porn.
In a story broken by American culture website Gawker.com, it turns out that while filmmaker Alan Roberts has titles like "Happy Hooker Goes to Hollywood" and "The Sexpert" to his name, he had yet to achieve recognition for his work. But all that may change, if information making him out to be the man who filmed the movie that has caused virulent demonstrations in more than twenty countries turns out to be true. According to Gawker’s Adrian Chen, who spoke to a number of the film's cast and crew, Nakoula, also known as Sam Bacille, was present during the filming – but there was no doubt who was really in charge. "Alan was working under Sam, sort of," said Eric Moers, a grip and electrician on the set. "But Alan was directing the movie; there was no question about it. Sam would just say [things like] 'Move faster, we have things to do.'"Tim Dax, an actor in the film, also told Gawker that Roberts, the director, and Bacile, the producer, were two different people.And the casting call, originally posted on Craigslist but still available in a cached version here, also lists Roberts as the director. Unfortunately for anyone trying to get to the bottom of the story, the rabbit hole goes deeper. Brooklyn's alternative magazine VICE received an anonymous package containing documents that seem to suggest that Alan Roberts, porn director “extraordinaire,” is really a pseudonym for someone called Robert Brownell, who has also used the name Robert Brown. This nesting-doll-style mystery has led many to come full circle and believe there really is no Alan Roberts, Robert Brownell or Robert Brown – and that the man originally thought to have made the movie really did make it. But Roberts-Brownell-Brown’s business partner confirmed the man really was involved in the scandalous project, and was "lying low" after mass protests broke out in the Middle East and North Africa. Still, it’s not really the director of the movie – which most of the evidence seems to show was dubbed during post-production in order to add the offensive content – who is of most interest. It’s not even Nakoula-slash-Basseley, who was being questioned by the police about his involvement in the project. What everyone, including the police, the politicians and the people, want to know, is whose idea was it to make the movie in the first place. But that mystery is yet to be solved.
