Exodus: Gods and Kings: coming to Blu-Ray in March, plus new behind-the-scenes photos

Exodus: Gods and Kings reached two milestones today.

First, it opened in Japan, the last country on the film’s global release schedule.

And then, the studio revealed that it will release the film on Blu-Ray (and Blu-Ray 3D) on March 17.

We don’t know yet what sort of bonus features the discs will have, but now seems like as good a time as any to catch up with a few behind-the-scenes galleries that have popped up over the last few weeks.

First, io9 has created several “sliders” that allow you to compare the ‘before’ and ‘after’ versions of certain visual effects shots. There’s a fair bit of green screen, as you’d expect, but it’s striking to see how much of the sets was actually built. (The picture at the top of this post is taken from one of these interactive graphics.)

Second, concept artist Vincent Jenkins has posted a few dozen paintings and sketches that he produced for the film, some of which are quite impressive:

Check out the rest at Jenkins’ website.

Finally, Mac Cosmetics has posted a few pictures of the make-up team at work:

They also focus on female characters such as Zipporah (Maria Valverde) …

… and the High Priestess (Indira Varma):

Check out the other pictures at the Mac Cosmetics Tumblr page.

February 2 update: The film will come out on Digital HD on March 3, which is two weeks before the Blu-Ray comes out. You can pre-order it at this link.

Check out earlier photos and images from Exodus: Gods and Kings here:

• Unofficial photos from the set (October 22, 2013)
• The first two official photos from the film (December 30, 2013)
• Moses runs into battle (January 13, 2014)
• Sixteen photos from Entertainment Weekly, People and others (July 1, 2014)
• The first three posters (July 8, 2014)
• A sword to the throat, spears, and Moses wearing earbuds (July 17, 2014)
• Our first look at Moses’ wife (July 24, 2014)
• Four photos from Empire magazine (August 6, 2014)
• Moses’ armour and Tuya’s headgear in Entertainment Weekly (August 15, 2014)
• The “international cast” via Yahoo! Australia (August 26, 2014)
• Three more photos from Empire magazine (August 28, 2014)
• “It’s an immense production” (September 9, 2014)
• Horses, costumes, and director Ridley Scott directing (September 16, 2014)
• Kadesh-themed countdown to the trailer (September 30, 2014)
• Images from the official website, and others (October 17, 2014)
• Three more posters, plus images from Total Film magazine (October 24, 2014)
• Ten Facebook photos and video-GIFs (November 3, 2014)
• Poster, costume designs, Facebook photos and video-GIF (November 7, 2014)
• Poster, Facebook photos and video-GIF (November 11, 2014)
• Ten Facebook photos and two video-GIFs (November 18, 2014)
• Six Empire magazine photos, three Facebook photos and two video-GIFs (November 23, 2014)
• Five Facebook photos (December 1, 2014)
• Four pictures of the plague visual effects (December 5, 2014)
• Nine Facebook photos (December 23, 2014)

And check out earlier videos and my shot-by-shot trailer analyses here:

• The first trailer (July 8, 2014)
• The ‘The World’ featurette (September 3, 2014)
• The ‘Locations’ featurette (September 10, 2014)
• The ‘Costume Design’ featurette (September 17, 2014)
• The ‘Creating the Action’ featurette (September 24, 2014)
• The second trailer (October 1, 2014)
• Micro-interviews with Christian Bale and Ridley Scott (October 17, 2014)
• Interview with Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton (October 21, 2014)
• Interview with Ridley Scott (October 28, 2014)
• The ‘Something Is Coming’ and ‘Two Brothers’ TV spots (November 3, 2014)
• The 3D featurette (November 8, 2014)
• The ‘Out of My Control’, ‘Follow Me’ and ‘Remember This’ TV spots (November 10, 2014)
• The third trailer (November 10, 2014)
• The ‘Strength’ clip (November 11, 2014)
• The ‘Miriam’ clip (November 18, 2014)
• The ‘Ridley’s Epic World’ featurette (November 19, 2014)
• The ‘What Makes You Happy’ clip and the Relevant featurette (November 21, 2014)
• The Entertainment Tonight report (November 23, 2014)
• The ‘Moses’ Journey’ featurette (November 24, 2014)
• The ‘Ramses’ Journey’ featurette (November 25, 2014)
• The EPK (November 26, 2014)
• The ‘Ready Yourselves’ TV commercial (November 27, 2014)
• The ‘Plagues’ clip and the ‘Brothers vs. Brother’, ‘Gods and Kings Collide’, ‘Absolutely Epic Review’, ‘War’ and ‘Face Off’ TV spots (December 1, 2014)
• The ‘Don’t Go’ and ‘Stable’ clips (December 1, 2014)
• The ‘Egyptologists’ featurette and the Nightline report (December 2, 2014)
• The ‘This Way’ clip, the ‘Bold and Brilliant’, ‘Heaven and Earth’ and ‘You’re Not Convinced’ TV spots and the ‘Global Premiere Highlights’ video (December 5, 2014)
• The ‘Inspired’ and ‘Honor’ TV spots, the Latino Review featurette and a video-GIF (December 10, 2014)
• The ‘10 Plagues in Modern Cities’ clips (December 11, 2014)
• The ‘Epic Human Story’, ‘Hope’, ‘Faith’, ‘My People’ and ‘Hope This Holiday’ TV spots, the ‘Burning Bush’ video, and six Facebook videos (December 23, 2014)