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Producer Barrie Osborne might be asking for trouble with this one. As anyone who watches Family Guy knows, visual depictions of the prophet Muhammad, the founder of the religion of Islam, are prohibited. This isn’t explicitly stated in the Qur’an, there are a few traditions of Islam that forbid him from being depicted in a manner other than oral or written descriptions.

Despite all of this, Osborne, who produced both The Matrix and the Lord of the Rings trilogies, is setting off on a quest to bring the story of Muhammad to the big screen. Budgeted at around $150m , the film will chart Muhammad’s life and examine his teachings. Osborne told Reuters (via Guardian UK) that he envisages it as “an international epic production aimed at bridging cultures. The film will educate people about the true meaning of Islam.”

Osborne’s production will reportedly feature English-speaking Muslim actors, and is backed by the Qatar-based production company Alnoor Holdings, who have installed the Muslim scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi to oversee all aspects of the shoot.

In accordance with Islamic law, the prophet will not actually be depicted on screen. Which makes for an interesting twist to this story, as I’m curious to see how Osborne intends to tell the story without actually showing the film’s central character on-screen. I think that a movie like this one has the potential to be very useful in our society, with many Americans still suffering from a muddied vision of what Islam really is, but it’s hard to say, as of yet, whether it will be successful. Time will tell, as always.

The still untitled project is set to shoot sometime in 2011.