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<\/a><\/p>\nBen-Hur<\/a><\/i> opens next week, and more and more news stories are rolling in.<\/p>\n The film had its world premiere<\/a> in Mexico on Tuesday night (see the videos below).<\/p>\n The studio released a second clip<\/a> from the chariot race, as well as a brief featurette<\/a> on Morgan Freeman\u2019s performance as Ilderim and a 22-minute making-of video<\/a>.<\/p>\n The film is now rated 12A in the UK<\/a>, PG in Ontario<\/a> and 14A in British Columbia<\/a>.<\/p>\n The film is only 125 minutes long \u2014 the shortest live-action version of this story since the original short film came out in 1907. The 1925 film runs 143 minutes, the 1959 film runs 212 minutes, and the 2010 miniseries runs 180 minutes without commercials.<\/p>\n Variety<\/a><\/i> has a detailed story on the making and marketing of the film:<\/p>\n \u201cAfter the summer we\u2019ve had, you can\u2019t take anything for granted,\u201d says Paramount\u2019s worldwide marketing chief Megan Colligan, referring to a crowded landscape littered with costly flops. That may explain why the studio had spent only 4% of its \u201cBen-Hur\u201d marketing budget by the time \u201cStar Trek Beyond\u201d opened, despite delaying the originally scheduled February release. \u201cWe did some early testing, which revealed that there were people who thought they knew \u2018Ben-Hur,\u2019 but when you asked them further questions, you realized they were confusing it with \u2018The Ten Commandments,\u2019\u201d Colligan says.<\/p>\n Personally inspired by the passing of Nelson Mandela in 2013, screenwriter Keith Clarke went looking for a story with a message of truth and reconciliation, and latched onto Civil War general Lew Wallace\u2019s 1880 novel, \u201cBen-Hur: A Tale of the Christ,\u201d which he adapted on spec. As Clarke puts it, \u201cIt\u2019s the story of three men at the crossroads of history. One chooses power and greed, one chooses revenge, and one chooses the path of peace and forgiveness. Only one survives.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Incidentally, the three men are Messala, Judah, and Jesus. Guess who survives.<\/p>\n The Wall Street Journal<\/a><\/i> has a story (and a video<\/a>) on the making of the chariot race:<\/p>\n The filmmakers planted GoPro cameras on chariots and people. \u201cWe had a camera on a soccer ball, sort of sitting in the middle of the track while the horses run over it,\u201d says Jonathan Glickman, president of MGM\u2019s film division. \u201cThis film, with all the emotion, really had the structure of a sports film, an underdog sports movie.\u201d . . .<\/p>\n The race scene in 2016 runs about 10 minutes, almost exactly the same as in the prior films, though it comes closer to the end of the movie this time. . . .<\/p>\n Jonathan Stamp, a historian who had consulted on the HBO\/BBC series \u201cRome,\u201d advised on chariot design. The chariots in the 1959 film were unrealistically ornate.<\/p>\n \u201cThe previous movie was made in the time of Cadillacs,\u201d Mr. Bekmambetov says. Here, they\u2019re no frills and built for speed. \u201cIt\u2019s like a bench with wheels, It took time for our stunt guys and actors to learn to drive them. You\u2019re not really protected and you need to figure out how to balance.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Deutsche Welle<\/a> got a soundbite from producer Sean Daniel:<\/p>\n \u201cOur \u2018Ben Hur\u2019 should not be seen as a remake of Wyler\u2019s film, but as a new film adaptation of the 1880 novel by Lew Wallace,\u201d explained producer Sean Daniel, \u201cCo-screenwriter John Ridley has focused on family relations and the power of faith and, in particularly, reconciliation. The original, on the other hand, focused on revenge.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Esquire<\/a><\/i> spoke to Jack Huston, who plays Judah Ben-Hur:<\/p>\n \u201cWe shot at Cinecitt\u00e0 Studios in Rome,\u201d he says. \u201cMy granddad shot a couple movies there.\u201d Huston also discovered that some of the crew were related to crewmembers from the original production. \u201cThere were guys telling me stories about their fathers working on the last one.\u201d . . .<\/p>\n Before bounding out of the lobby to see an early cut of The Yellow Birds<\/i> just up the street, he reveals that he\u2019s already screened Ben-Hur<\/i> twice. Actors tend to downplay their excitement, thinking it\u2019s professional to do so. But Huston, refreshingly, can\u2019t contain his. \u201cIt\u2019s mad,\u201d he says of the film. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing. Like, it\u2019s a proper, proper, proper movie, man. I was like, \u2018This. Is. Why. We. Make. Movies. This is what gets me jazzed.\u2019 \u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n