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Rumi film will challenge Muslim stereotypes, says Gladiator writer
[font size="4"]Rumi film will challenge Muslim stereotypes, says Gladiator writer[/font]
David Franzoni, who wrote script for 2000 film starring Russell Crowe, to pen biopic on 13th-century Muslim poet and scholar
[font size="1"]Kareem Shaheen in Istanbul
Monday 6 June 2016 12.45 EDT[/font]
An Oscar-winning screenwriter has agreed to work on a biopic about the 13th-century poet Jalaluddin al-Rumi.
David Franzoni, who wrote the script for the 2000 blockbuster Gladiator, and Stephen Joel Brown, a producer on the Rumi film, said they wanted to challenge the stereotypical portrayal of Muslim characters in western cinema by charting the life of the great Sufi scholar.
“He’s like a Shakespeare,” Franzoni said. “He’s a character who has enormous talent and worth to his society and his people, and obviously resonates today. Those people are always worth exploring.”
Producers hope to begin shooting the film next year. Franzoni and Brown were in Istanbul last week to meet with Rumi experts and visited the mystic’s mausoleum in Konya.
(more at linked headline)
David Franzoni, who wrote script for 2000 film starring Russell Crowe, to pen biopic on 13th-century Muslim poet and scholar
[font size="1"]Kareem Shaheen in Istanbul
Monday 6 June 2016 12.45 EDT[/font]
An Oscar-winning screenwriter has agreed to work on a biopic about the 13th-century poet Jalaluddin al-Rumi.
David Franzoni, who wrote the script for the 2000 blockbuster Gladiator, and Stephen Joel Brown, a producer on the Rumi film, said they wanted to challenge the stereotypical portrayal of Muslim characters in western cinema by charting the life of the great Sufi scholar.
“He’s like a Shakespeare,” Franzoni said. “He’s a character who has enormous talent and worth to his society and his people, and obviously resonates today. Those people are always worth exploring.”
Producers hope to begin shooting the film next year. Franzoni and Brown were in Istanbul last week to meet with Rumi experts and visited the mystic’s mausoleum in Konya.
(more at linked headline)
4 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
One factoid I find most interesting is that he's the most popular poet in the US 
I liked a Rumi group on FB, so I get various quotes with images, presumably daily, though I don't look at my wall but maybe weekly. Such as the latest one from today:
Speaking the same language is not as powerful as speaking the language of the heart.
~ Rumi
~ Rumi
The other one I like similar to it is quotes from Thich Nhat Hanh:
Thich Nhat Hanh gems
Yesterday at 3:59pm ·
The instant you sit down to meditate, begin watching your breath. At first breathe normally, gradually letting your breathing slow down until it is quiet, even, and the lengths of the breaths are fairly long. From the moment you sit down to the moment your breathing has become deep and silent, be conscious of everything that is happening in yourself.
- Thich Nhat Hanh
Yesterday at 3:59pm ·
The instant you sit down to meditate, begin watching your breath. At first breathe normally, gradually letting your breathing slow down until it is quiet, even, and the lengths of the breaths are fairly long. From the moment you sit down to the moment your breathing has become deep and silent, be conscious of everything that is happening in yourself.
- Thich Nhat Hanh
Of course, there are many such groups like that out there. I wouldn't be able to do anything else but read if I subscribed to them all
