Anti-Islam Film Directed by X-Rated Director Alan Roberts?

As if the whole anti-Islam "Innocence of Muslims" saga couldn't get any more bizarre (or confusing), it does.

First of all we were told the director was an Israeli Jew by the man calling himself Sam Bacile. Then we come to find out that 'director' Bacile was not an Israeli Jew after all, but rather ex-con Coptic Christian Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. But Nakoula insisted he was only involved in the logistics, and now it turns out he was possibly telling the truth when he claimed he wasn't the director of the tacky film. According to Gawker, the movie- that we have since come to realize was actually dubbed in post production to add Islamic references- was actually directed by a  d-rated, "has been" director best known for several softcore x-rated films from the 1970s and 80s. Although this too could eventually change.

65-year-old Alan Roberts aka Robert Brownell directed "The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood", and several others, but had more success as a film editor. If he did indeed direct this, I'm sure the notoriety wasn't quite what he had hoped for his career; because even though he was apparently duped like the majority of people involved in the production, when word gets out to the Muslim world, you know there will be a price on his head.

An Alan Roberts is listed as director on the film's casting calls and call sheets from the summer of 2011, back when it was innocuously called Desert Warriors..

Castmembers and crew told us yesterday that Roberts was brought on by producer "Sam Bacile" aka Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, and he muddled his way through a disorganized three-month shoot.

This is the same Alan Roberts listed in IMDB as the director of a handful of softcore porn movies and other low-budget films, according to acquaintances we spoke to today.

"I am sure it was the same Alan Roberts, as I remember him speaking about this project," said filmmaker David A. Prior, a longtime acquaintance of Roberts, in an email. Roberts is listed as a producer on two of Prior's films, 2008's Zombie Wars and 2007's Lost at War.

"He did work on [Innocence of Muslims]," confirmed a man who was Roberts' business partner in a post-production facility he ran, who asked not to be named.
The backstory behind how Roberts became director of Innocence of Muslims is still unclear, like so many things about the film. We've tried to reach Roberts, but his business associate told us he "turned off his phone" soon after protests broke out over the film and is laying low. But he said Roberts was "non-political" and did not have any apparent anti-Islam feelings. Roberts may have been duped by the film's producer in much the same way as the rest of the cast and crew. They believed they were participating in a period piece about ancient Egypt and had no idea the movie would be edited and dubbed into a piece of Islamophobic propaganda..

The rest at Gawker.

Note: "Desert Warriors" is not listed on imdb.com