{"id":44156,"date":"2016-04-12T11:14:46","date_gmt":"2016-04-12T18:14:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=44156"},"modified":"2016-04-12T22:49:12","modified_gmt":"2016-04-13T05:49:12","slug":"paramount-shows-exhibitors-some-more-ben-hur-footage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2016\/04\/paramount-shows-exhibitors-some-more-ben-hur-footage.html","title":{"rendered":"Paramount shows exhibitors some more Ben-Hur<\/i> footage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"benhur-trailer-mast-a\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Paramount promoted its upcoming films at CinemaCon yesterday, and one of them, of course, was the upcoming remake of Ben-Hur<\/a><\/i>, which comes out August 19.<\/p>\n

It sounds like the studio unveiled some new footage from the film, though nothing too<\/i> revealing \u2014 and, given how director Timur Bekmambetov has been insisting lately that the film\u2019s chariot race is \u201call real<\/a>\u201d, it\u2019s interesting how a lot of the reports coming out of CinemaCon have suggested that the chariot race is full of digital effects.<\/p>\n

JoBlo<\/a> reports:<\/p>\n

They showed us the currently released trailer<\/a> with an extended look at the chariot scene in the arena, complete with some serious smash-and-crash damage and brutality, which seemed to do more harm to the (surely digital) horses than anything. We also got a peek at Rodrigo Santoro\u2019s Jesus interacting with Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston) and a bit more from Morgan Freeman\u2019s character (okay, mostly him yelling \u201cGo!\u201d) Timur Bekmambetov looks to have made, if anything else, an entertaining romp more so than a film that\u2019s attempting to dethrone Heston\u2019s classic.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Variety<\/a><\/i> reports:<\/p>\n

The 1959 iteration of the beloved Lew Wallace book still shares the record for most Oscar wins in history (11, with \u201cTitanic\u201d and \u201cThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King\u201d). But Bekmambetov\u2019s vision \u2014 an action-packed adventure aimed at modern audiences \u2014 won\u2019t likely be treading those waters. The riveting chariot race sequence, for instance, has been turned up to 11, far more brutal and visceral.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Wall Street Journal<\/a><\/i> reports:<\/p>\n

\u201cBen-Hur\u201d<\/b> \u2014 A remake of the 1959 classic appears to take full advantage of 2016 special effects, with the chariot scenes of the swords-and-sandals epic playing like intense Nascar races. Jack Huston<\/b> fills Charlton Heston\u2019s shoes as a former slave avenging his family in the racetrack. The movie is also hoping to tap faith-based audiences, and the footage shown Monday featured shots of its star with arms spread, an apparent allusion to Christ on the cross.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And Deadline<\/a> reports:<\/p>\n

Extensive footage of the famous chariot race from Ben-Hur<\/i> certainly benefitted from strides in CGI action and the movie is even being offered in 3D!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Deadline also addressed the film\u2019s new, late-August release date<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Its dog days of August opening gives one pause, but perhaps Paramount has discovered a faith-based audience dying to see a biblical epic like this at the end of summer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Perhaps. But relying on the \u201cfaith-based\u201d niche only gets you so far.<\/p>\n

It is<\/i> worth noting that War Room<\/a><\/i>, the top-grossing independent evangelical movie of all time, came out in late August \u2014 but it had a small-ish opening and stayed afloat due to strong word-of-mouth. That is not the usual trajectory for a big-budget epic.<\/p>\n

War Room<\/i> also topped out at $67.8 million, which is just a wee bit more than the $65 million that Exodus: Gods and Kings<\/a><\/i> earned two years ago \u2014 and that<\/i> film, the last non-niche big-budget Bible movie, was considered a box-office disappointment.<\/p>\n

Ah well. Ben-Hur<\/i>\u2019s release date is only four months and one week away, so we\u2019ll find out how well it does \u2014 and what sort of audience it attracts \u2014 soon enough.<\/p>\n

Update:<\/b> Bekmambetov clarifies the \u201creal\u201d vs. CGI question via Business Insider<\/a><\/i>:<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say CGI is entirely absent from the sequence.<\/p>\n

Many of the wide shots of the crowd were enhanced with computer graphics, and there\u2019s a shot in the trailer of a horse that gallops into the crowd \u2014 done with, yes, CGI magic.<\/p>\n

But Bekmambetov said the \u201cgoal was to do as much in-camera as possible.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bekmambetov also says the \u201call real\u201d approach was inspired by Hardcore Henry<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Plus: Can the “faith-based” audience make up for the film’s late-August release date?<\/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":[411,2202,3502,1400],"class_list":["post-44156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-ben-hur","tag-ben-hur-2016","tag-hardcore-henry","tag-timur-bekmambetov"],"yoast_head":"\nParamount shows exhibitors some more Ben-Hur footage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Plus: Can the "faith-based" audience make up for the film's late-August release date?\" \/>\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\/2016\/04\/paramount-shows-exhibitors-some-more-ben-hur-footage.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Paramount shows exhibitors some more Ben-Hur footage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Plus: Can the "faith-based" audience make up for the film's late-August release date?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2016\/04\/paramount-shows-exhibitors-some-more-ben-hur-footage.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-12T18:14:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-04-13T05:49:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/files\/2016\/04\/benhur-trailer-mast-a-1024x290.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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