‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’ – a sneak peek and the new trailer!

Tonight at Fox Studios, Sr. Jennifer and I got to see clips from the upcoming December 12 release, Ridley Scott’s epic “Exodus: Gods and Kings.”

The first scenes they showed us were the usual “sword and sandal” story and battles; Moses was wearing black and riding a black horse; his “cousin” Rhamses (Joel Edgerton) wearing silverish garments and riding a white horse. The conflict is signaled early on. The film became interesting quickly when Moses (Christian Bale) tours the quarries where the Hebrews are making bricks, and seems tired at seeing the cruelty of the Egyptians to the Hebrews. Then Nun (Ben Kingsley) approaches Moses to tell him the story of how his mother instructed Miriam, Moses’ sister, to place him in a basket in the river so he would be found by the Bithia (Hiam Abbass) sister to the Seti, the Pharoah (played by an unrecognizable John Turturro). The news is disturbing to Moses and Nun prods him, “You’ve known things haven’t been right for a long time.”

Oscar-winner Christian Bale was present at the screening and Theo James, from Fandango, asked him questions about the filming, a rather quick 74 days. Bale said he prepared by reading the Torah and other books to prepare for his role – and yes, he did re-watch “The Ten Commandments.” He is aware no one can duplicate Charlton Heston and Bale’s Moses is a young man with an attitude, fighting the Hittites with his “cousin” Rhamses (Joel Edgerton). He told the audience that Heston’s Moses seemed elevated above the earth, but his Moses, as we saw, is very grounded.

I am looking forward to seeing how the different characters will develop. We saw four of the ten plagues – wow. We did not see the scene with Moses and the Burning Bush – my favorite scene from the film “The Ten Commandments” so this will be a surprise. From what we saw it seems that the script, by Steven Zaillian (“Schindler’s List”), will give us the Bible account – in 3D. There were six 3D cameras filming at all times. I think the final production may be extraordinary.

And I am not saying this just because Sr. Jennifer Tecla and I had our picture taken with Christian Bale after. Just saying.