Shortly after Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwā against Salman Rushdie for writing The Satanic Verses, Pakistani filmmakers punched out International Guerillas (YouTube link), a deranged exploitation flick starring a faux-Rushdie as a blasphemous crime lord.

In the film, Rushdie dwells on an island fortress, scheming with the Israeli military to corrupt pious Muslims with casinos and discotheques. After the film's trio of protagonists sneak on to the author's headquarters with Batman costumes, a group of floating Korans inexplicably fly down from the sky and annihilate Rushdie with lasers and/or lighting bolts.


Even though the $500,000 film was marketed as a satire, International Guerillas was initally banned in Britain, where Rushdie was facing death threats. The author later convinced the British Board of Film Classification to overturn the ban, on the assumption that audiences would recognize that he was not a Bond villain who routinely executed people with sabers.

[Via Everything Is Terrible]