Ambitious project secures voice cast.
‘Taken’ star Liam Neeson, Salma Hayek (‘Here Comes The Boom’), John Krasinski (‘The Office’), Frank Langella (‘Robot & Frank’), Alfred Molina (‘Monsters University’) and Quvenzhané Wallis (‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’) have all signed up to lend their voices to an animated feature based on Lebanese artist, philosopher and writer Kahlil Gibran’s classic book ‘The Prophet.’
One of the best-selling books of all time, having sold over 100 million copies since its original publication in 1923, ‘The Prophet’ is a book of 26 poetic essays, divided into chapters dealing with love, marriage, children, joy and sorrow, crime and punishment, freedom, friendship, good and evil, prayer, religion and death amongst others.
Animation director Roger Allers (‘The Lion King,’ ‘Open Season’) is in charge of the through-line narrative, while individual chapters will be handled by filmmakers like Tomm Moore (‘The Secret Of Kells’), Joan Gratz (’Mona Lisa Descending A Staircase’), Bill Plympton (‘Guard Dog And Your Face’), Nina Paley (‘Sita Sings The Blues’), Joann Sfar (‘The Rabbi’s Cat’), Paul and Gaetan Brizzi (‘Fantasia 2000’), Michal Socha (‘Chick’) and Mohammed Harib (‘Freej’).
The film is a passion project for Hayek who will be producing the feature alongside Clark Peterson and Ron Senkowski. Doha Film Institute will co-finance with Participant Media, MyGroup Lebanon, FFA Private Bank, JRW Entertainment and Code Red Productions.