A 4K version of “The Message,” directed by Moustapha Akkad, will meet moviegoers again after 45 years. The restored version will also have 2D sound quality along with options of Turkish dubbing and subtitles.
After nearly two years of restoration by producer Malek Akkad, son of Syrian American director Akkad, and Trancas International, the iconic movie has been renewed with 4K video and 2D digital sound quality. The restoration works were meticulously carried out at Deluxe UK studios.
Speaking in a video about the restoration, Deluxe UK Studio Senior Film Technician Marie Fieldman said that the original negatives of the film were damaged by moisture over time and were exposed to deterioration.
Director of Digital Imaging Daniel Hack also said: “In the process, negative films are connected to a scanner and scanned frame by frame through a passage. A digital file is created for each frame in this way.”
Digital restoration specialist Lisa Copson added: "As a team, we have to manually repair thousands of instances of damage, stains and film tears. We can spend hundreds of hours repairing each frame."
Film coloring specialist Steve Bearman, on the other hand, noted that he had not seen Libya and Morocco, where the film was shot, so coloring some geography he did not know was an interesting task.
The 177-minute film, which is best known as the film that describes the life of the Prophet Muhammad and the birth of Islam, was shot in 1976.
The film includes stars Anthony Quinn, Irene Papas, Michael Ansara, Johnny Sekka, Michael Forest, Garrick Hagon and Damien Thomas.
The first screening of the movie in Turkey was on Jan. 31, 1977, and the renewed copy of the movie, which attracted great interest, with 4K image and 2D digital sound quality will be released on April 15 in the country.
