Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt to star Sean Bean and more

It has been two months since I last wrote about Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, the film adaptation of Anne Rice’s novel about Jesus’ childhood. At that time, the studio behind the film had announced a release date but no cast members. Today, however, a colleague tipped me off to the fact that the film’s IMDb page now lists 20 actors, and at least one of them is fairly well-known: Lord of the Rings co-star Sean Bean.

Bean is playing someone named Severus, but there is no one of that name in the book — at least not according to a quick Google Books search — so I don’t know who that character is or what function he will play in the story. Sounds Roman, though.

Bean, who has plenty of experience with period pieces, has appeared in at least one Bible film before. He played Esau in the Bible Collection’s Jacob back in 1994.

There is no word yet on who is playing Jesus, but the IMDb does say Vincent Walsh is playing Joseph and Agni Scott is playing “Miriam”, who I’m guessing is identical to the biblical Mary. Walsh doesn’t seem to have any previous Bible-movie experience, but Scott played Jacob’s concubine Zilpah in The Red Tent a few months ago.

Other actors with previous Bible-movie experience include:

• Jarreth J. Merz (Eleazer’s Father) — he played Simon of Cyrene in The Passion of the Christ, and will also be seen next year as someone named Flores in Ben-Hur
• Matt Patresi (Cynical Stranger) — he played a soldier in The Nativity Story, someone named Janus in The Passion of the Christ, someone named Titone in The Apocalypse, and Barabbas in two installments of The Friends of Jesus
• Douglas Dean (Physician) — he played a beggar in the 2012 version of Barabbas
• Andrea Scarduzio (Dove Seller) — he played Andrew in Color of the Cross

Harry Potter veteran David Bradley — he played the cranky caretaker Argus Filch — is also in this film as an “Old Rabbi”. This seems to be his first Bible movie, too.

The film was shot in Italy last year but doesn’t come out until March 11, 2016.

March 19 update: In an earlier version of this post, I said I couldn’t think of any other Bible movies that Sean Bean had starred in. Many thanks to reader ‘OicorZ’ for reminding me about Jacob. I don’t know how I forgot about that one.