Cast and crew of anti-Muslim movie: We were duped!

Cast and crew of anti-Muslim movie: We were duped!

Cast says inflammatory dialogue was subbed in after film was shot. The film ‘The Innocence of Muslims’ is being blamed for widespread unrest and protests.

BY ANTHONY BARTKEWICZ / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2012, 9:11 AM

The film “The Innocence of Muslims,” which had hardly been heard of before Tuesday, was made by “Sam Bacile.” Bacile claimed to be a U.S.-based Israeli Jew, but people connected to the production say it’s a pseudonym.

Protests over a U.S. film depicting Muhammed, Islam’s holiest prophet, in an insulting manner provided the cover for an assault on the U.S. embassy in Libya.

The attack left four American diplomats dead, and now the cast and crew of the movie are speaking out.

As far as they knew, they were making a completely different movie.

The low-budget film is known by multiple titles, including “The Innocence of Muslims.” An excerpt, dubbed into Arabic, sparked outrage and protests when Arab media covered it.

But the casting call said actors would be in a "historical Arabian Desert adventure film" titled “Desert Warrior,” CNN reported.

The movie’s buffoonish Muhammed was called “Master George” in the script, and references to the prophet — and Islam in general — were dubbed in after it was shot.

"The entire cast and crew are extremely upset and feel taken advantage of by the producer," said a joint statement from 80 people who worked on the movie. “We are 100% not behind this film and were grossly misled about its intent and purpose. We are shocked by the drastic rewrites of the script and lies that were told to all involved.”

Actress Cindy Lee Garcia told KERO-TV she wouldn’t knowingly be a part of anti-Islam propaganda.

“I would never hurt anybody no matter what religion they are,” she said.

After the American diplomats were killed, she called producer-director Sam Bacile, who told her he was “tired of the radical Muslims running around killing everyone.”

But Bacile’s deception didn’t end with his cast and crew: He isn’t even Sam Bacile.

He claimed to be an Israeli Jew living in California, but Israel has no record of his citizenship.

Photo: STEVE KLEIN, the Man behind the Whole Affair

Steve Klein, an anti-Islamic activist who served as a consultant on the movie, told The Atlantic that “Sam Bacile” is a pseudonym, and the filmmaker isn’t Israeli or Jewish.

“I would suspect this is a disinformation campaign," Klein said.

The Associated Press spoke to Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a Coptic Christian who said he knew Bacile but denied being the director.

But the cell phone number AP used to contact Bacile — who was purportedly in hiding — traced back to Nakoula’s address, and court records from a 2010 bank fraud case against him showed that his false identities included “Nicola Bacily.”

abartkewicz@nydailynews.com