Will there be two Bible epics on the big screen in 2014?

Ridley Scott’s Moses movie may be further along than we thought. Box Office Mojo posted a few new release dates to its schedule yesterday, and one of them was for Exodus, the Bible epic that Scott has been developing with 20th Century Fox for the past year or two. If the site is to be believed, Exodus will be coming to a theatre near you on December 12, 2014 — or about a year and a half from now. And that would make it one of two Bible epics hitting the big screen next year, the other being Darren Aronofsky’s Noah, which comes out March 28. Interestingly, that film stars Russell Crowe, who has appeared in four of Scott’s last five films and sort of owes his stardom to an even earlier Scott-directed sword-and-sandals flick, Gladiator (2000) — so who knows, if Scott calls on Crowe’s services again, Crowe could end up finding himself in both of next year’s Bible epics. (Hat tip to The Playlist.)

Twelve-foot gods and the environment: actors talk Noah

I had hoped to have a review of Star Trek into Darkness ready to go live this afternoon, but it’s taking longer to write than I expected, so it will have to wait. In the meantime, here’s a brief update on Darren Aronofsky’s Noah, which I haven’t mentioned here in a while.

Empire posted an “exclusive” interview today with Mark Margolis, who has acted in all of Aronofsky’s films and will play “a fallen angel known as Samyaza” in the new film.

Margolis himself calls his character “a 12-foot god”, and although he doesn’t say what his character will do, exactly, in the new movie, he does talk about what it was like to play the character, who will eventually be rendered in CG:
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Shaved heads, missing teeth: more pictures from the set of Noah

It’s been a few weeks since our last photographic update from the set of Darren Aronofsky’s Noah, so here’s another round.

The Daily Mail has half-a-dozen pictures of Russell Crowe walking around in costume — and the most striking thing about these pictures, to me at least, is the shaved head. In the photo that the studio released two months ago (the Mail is incorrect when it claims that these new pictures represent our “first look” at Crowe in character), Crowe’s beard was a little smaller but the hair on top was definitely longer. So where did it go? Is Crowe making room for a wig? Or does Noah shave his head at some point in the story?

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A few new details about Darren Aronofsky’s Noah

First, and most significantly, USA Today has just posted an article on the film which includes what I believe is our first look ever at Russell Crowe in character as the titular boat-builder.

And while the article mostly repeats information that is already out there, it does include one detail that I don’t recall coming across before: specifically, the character played by Ray Winstone, who has previously been described as Noah’s “nemesis”, now has a name. And that name is Tubal-Cain — which also happens to be the name of one of Cain’s descendants, as per Genesis 4:
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