Apparently I’m
not the only one who finds the film Innocence of
Muslims a little too bad to be true. It’s unclear that the
film — which was the cover for apparently coordinated attacks
on the U.S. embassies in Egypt and Libya that left four peope dead,
including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens — even exists. The
film’s alleged maker may also be an invention. 

At The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg
looks for the real “Sam Bacile” and finds bupkes. He does,
however, get an interview with Steve Klein, a Riverside,
California, insurance salesman and consultant on the purported
film:

Klein told me that Bacile, the producer of the film, is not
Israeli, and most likely not Jewish, as has been reported, and that
the name is, in fact, a pseudonym. He said he did not know
“Bacile”‘s real name. He said Bacile contacted him because he leads
anti-Islam protests outside of mosques and schools, and because, he
said, he is a Vietnam veteran and an expert on uncovering al Qaeda
cells in California. “After 9/11 I went out to look for terror
cells in California and found them, piece of cake. Sam found out
about me. The Middle East Christian and Jewish communities trust
me.”

He said the man who identified himself as Bacile asked him to
help make the anti-Muhammad film. When I asked him to describe
Bacile, he said: “I don’t know that much about him. I met him, I
spoke to him for an hour. He’s not Israeli, no. I can tell you this
for sure, the State of Israel is not involved, Terry Jones (the
radical Christian Quran-burning pastor) is not involved. His name
is a pseudonym. All these Middle Eastern folks I work with have
pseudonyms. I doubt he’s Jewish. I would suspect this is a
disinformation campaign.”

At ReligionsDispatches.org, Sarah Posner
notes discrepancies in the reporting of Bacile’s age and
background, as well as conflicting stories of the movie’s
provenance:

But before the July 2012 upload of the film trailer to YouTube,
under the user name Sam Bacile, you’d be hard pressed to find
evidence of the existence a California real estate developer
online. What’s more, if whoever made the film actually spent $5
million on it, the expenditure hardly shows in the content, acting,
or production values. Amateurish doesn’t even begin to describe the
13-minute trailer on YouTube.

Something notable about the production value is that it doesn’t
just appear amateurish but suggests the trailer is a collection of
scenes cobbled together from different sources. Some of the ADR
clearly changes the dialogue rather than just looping it. At one
point a character writes “BT” twice as an abbreviation for “Islamic
terrorist.” The obvious green screen is actually the least jarring
thing about the trailer, because it at least suggests a straightup
religious satire made at a level of production comparable to, say,
an episode of Kingsley’s Meadow. My first impression of
the trailer was that it was a Rickroll by somebody who noticed that
“anti-Muslim film” was trending. The lack of any opening
information, title, credits, or indication that there even is a
complete film is not helping me walk back that impression.

It’s bad enough that people think this is worth committing
murder over. For me the real outrage is that in two days
Innocence
of Muslims has gotten a million times more publicity than

Home Run Showdown will get until the end of time. But both
of these injustices will be more infuriating if the film doesn’t
even exist.

Update: Buzzfeed also
speculates that the film doesn’t exist and puts together a
highlight reel of the stuff I described above. CNN has some details
on a
possible U.S. response. 

Update 2: Gawker’s Adrian Chen tracks
down a cast member who says big chunks of dialogue were
overdubbed. (For example, the script apparently reads “Master
George” whenever “Mohammed” is dubbed.) There’s also a statement
from the “entire cast and crew” that reads, “The entire cast and
crew are extremely upset and feel taken advantage of by the
producer. We are 100% not behind this film and were grossly misled
about its intent and purpose. We are shocked by the drastic
re-writes of the script and lies that were told to all involved. We
are deeply saddened by the tragedies that have occurred.”