{"id":932,"date":"2008-04-09T09:15:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-09T09:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/04\/ben-hur-to-become-a-mini-series\/"},"modified":"2008-04-09T09:15:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-09T09:15:00","slug":"ben-hur-to-become-a-mini-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/04\/ben-hur-to-become-a-mini-series.html","title":{"rendered":"Ben-Hur to become a mini-series."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
First, The Ten Commandments<\/i> was a silent film produced in 1923<\/a>. Then, it was a blockbuster starring Charlton Heston<\/a> produced in 1956<\/a>. And then, it became a TV mini-series produced in 2006<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now Ben-Hur<\/i> looks set to repeat the pattern. First, it was a silent film produced in 1925<\/a>. Then, it was a blockbuster starring Charlton Heston in 1959<\/a>. And now, according to Variety<\/a><\/i>, it is about to become a TV mini-series \u2014 produced by David Wyler, whose father William was an assistant director on the 1925 film and won an Oscar for directing the 1959 film.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another trajectory the mini-series will follow: The 1925 film was pretty explicitly Christian, and the 1959 film toned down<\/a> those elements in favour of a more generically pacifist, humanist message. Now, says Variety<\/i>, the mini-series \u201cwill be based more specifically on the 1907 Lew Wallace source novel than either the 1959 version or earlier 1925 adaptation,\u201d but it \u201cwill also likely downplay the religious aspects of the source material.\u201d<\/p>\n

Says Wyler: \u201cWe want to look at the spirituality within the piece rather than directly relating it to a specific religion. . . . It\u2019s a very complex story. It\u2019s been 50 years since my father\u2019s version and we think we can bring something new and contemporary to it in the same way that \u2018Gladiator<\/a>\u2019 did for that genre.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, what, Judah Ben-Hur will now be a generic pagan who dies dreaming of a vague afterlife with his leprous mother and sister?<\/p>\n

Oh, and fact-check: Lew Wallace\u2019s novel was published in 1880, not in 1907. However, the year 1907 is significant because that is when an even earlier version<\/a> of Ben-Hur<\/i> was produced \u2014 albeit a version that didn\u2019t amount to much more than a glorified chariot race. That version is also historically significant because it prompted a precedent-setting copyright-infringement lawsuit.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: It turns out someone has posted the surviving footage from the 1907 film on YouTube, in two parts. So here it is:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Cf2DN1KEyks<\/a>
Click here<\/a> if the video file above doesn\u2019t play properly.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DCYnLs0f-Dw<\/a>
Click here<\/a> if the video file above doesn\u2019t play properly.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First, The Ten Commandments was a silent film produced in 1923. Then, it was a blockbuster starring Charlton Heston produced in 1956. And then, it became a TV mini-series produced in 2006. Now Ben-Hur looks set to repeat the pattern. First, it was a silent film produced in 1925. Then, it was a blockbuster starring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nBen-Hur to become a mini-series.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"First, The Ten Commandments was a silent film produced in 1923. Then, it was a blockbuster starring Charlton Heston produced in 1956. 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