Gibran’s ‘The Prophet’ to hit the big screen

In an inter­na­tional work of col­lab­o­ra­tion, pro­duc­ers Salma Hayek, Clark Peter­son and Ron Senkowski are being pre-production on an ani­mated screen adap­tion of Khalil (Kahlil) Gibran’s “The Prophet.” Eas­ily the poet’s most famous work, each of the chap­ters in the work will be directed by a dif­fer­ent, respected ani­ma­tion direc­tor from around the world.

Among the dis­tin­guished direc­tors com­mit­ted to the project are Mar­jane Satrapi (Perse­po­lis), Chris Lan­dreth (“Ryan”), Tomm Moore (The Secret of Kells), Nina Paley (Sita Sings the Blues), Mohammed Saeed Harib (“Freej”), Joan Gratz (Oscar win­ner for Mona Lisa Descend­ing a Stair­case), Michal Socha, Francesco Testa and Bill Plymp­ton (How To Kiss and The Cow Who Wanted To Be A Ham­burger). The ani­mated chap­ters will be joined by The Lion King direc­tor Roger Allers, who is respon­si­ble for the over­all nar­ra­tive flow. Doha Film Insi­ti­tute (DFI) is co-financing along with Par­tic­i­pant Media, MyGroup Lebanon, FFA Pri­vate Bank, JRW Enter­tain­ment and Code Red Productions.

“‘The Prophet’ has been an incred­i­ble source of wis­dom and inspi­ra­tion for mil­lions of peo­ple all over the world. Being of Lebanese descent, I’m par­tic­u­larly proud to be part of a project that will present this mas­ter­piece to new gen­er­a­tions, in a way never seen before,” said Hayek.

Sell­ing over 100 mil­lion copies in many lan­guages across the world since its orig­i­nal pub­li­ca­tion in 1923, Gibran’s book is among the top sell­ing books in his­tory. The Prophet is in its 163rd print­ing and has sold over 100 mil­lion copies since its orig­i­nal pub­li­ca­tion in 1923, mak­ing him the third high­est sell­ing poet, just behind Shake­speare and Lao-Tzu.

bcdb.com