{"id":10360,"date":"2013-10-24T12:01:33","date_gmt":"2013-10-24T19:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=10360"},"modified":"2013-10-25T07:03:50","modified_gmt":"2013-10-25T14:03:50","slug":"ben-hur-remake-gets-a-rewrite-starts-shooting-in-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2013\/10\/ben-hur-remake-gets-a-rewrite-starts-shooting-in-spring.html","title":{"rendered":"Ben-Hur<\/i> remake gets a rewrite, starts shooting in spring"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>From one 19th-century story about a free man forced into slavery to another\u2026<\/p>\n

Deadline<\/a> reports that John Ridley, the screenwriter behind the much-buzzed Oscars contender 12 Years a Slave<\/i>, has been hired to do a rewrite on MGM\u2019s latest version of Ben-Hur<\/a><\/i>, the 1880 Lew Wallace novel that the studio previously adapted in 1925 and 1959.<\/p>\n

With Kazakh action specialist Timur Bekmambetov lined up to direct<\/a>, Deadline says the studio plans to start casting \u201csoon\u201d and to start production \u201cin the spring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deadline also says the existing script is different from the 1959 film \u201cin that it will tell the parallel tale of Jesus Christ, with whom Ben-Hur has several encounters which moves him to become a believer in the Messiah, and which culminates in Christ being sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate.\u201d Those things weren\u2019t entirely<\/i> absent from the 1959 film, but it certainly downplayed them compared to the novel and the 1925 film<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So it will be interesting to see just what, exactly, the new film does with the more explicitly religious material, and whether that material truly fits into the overall drama or comes across like it was put there to pander to the \u201cPassion<\/i> dollars\u201d audience.<\/p>\n

It should also be noted that the projected start of production, in the spring, will probably be after Son of God<\/a><\/i> and Noah<\/a><\/i> have come out, and possibly after Exodus<\/a><\/i> has finished principal photography \u2014 so it will be interesting to see if the perceived success or failure of those Bible-themed films has any effect on this one.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The writer of 12 Years a Slave<\/i> tackles a different 19th-century book about a free man forced into slavery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[411,465,345,1487],"class_list":["post-10360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-ben-hur","tag-greco-roman","tag-jesus","tag-john-ridley"],"yoast_head":"\nBen-Hur remake gets a rewrite, starts shooting in spring<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The writer of 12 Years a Slave tackles a different 19th-century book about a free man forced into slavery.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2013\/10\/ben-hur-remake-gets-a-rewrite-starts-shooting-in-spring.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ben-Hur remake gets a rewrite, starts shooting in spring\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The writer of 12 Years a Slave tackles a different 19th-century book about a free man forced into slavery.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2013\/10\/ben-hur-remake-gets-a-rewrite-starts-shooting-in-spring.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-24T19:01:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-10-25T14:03:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/files\/2013\/10\/benhur1925-203x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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