Moustapha Akkad

Moustapha Akkad was a Syrian-American film producer and director, best known for producing the original series of Halloween films and directing The Message and Lion of the Desert. He was born on July 1, 1930, in Aleppo, Syria, and moved to the United States to study film at UCLA and USC. He worked as a consultant for Sam Peckinpah and a producer for CBS before making his directorial debut with The Message, a historical epic about the life of Prophet Muhammad. He faced many challenges and controversies while making the film, but he saw it as his duty to tell the truth about Islam and bridge the gap between the Western and Muslim worlds. He later directed Lion of the Desert, another historical drama about the Libyan resistance leader Omar Mukhtar, starring Anthony Quinn. He also produced the Halloween franchise, starting with the 1978 horror classic by John Carpenter. He was the executive producer of all the sequels until his death in 2005. He was killed along with his daughter Rima in the 2005 Amman bombings, a terrorist attack that targeted a hotel in Jordan. He was 75 years old. He is remembered as a pioneer of Arab cinema and a visionary filmmaker who brought diverse stories and perspectives to the screen.