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Morgan Freeman Joins Bekmambetov’s ‘Ben-Hur’ Remake


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Morgan Freeman, the man who never gets any older, has been confirmed to take on the role of Ildarin in Timur Bekmambetov’s vision of BEN-HUR.

His character is the fella who trains Ben-Hur, for the adaptation based Lew Wallace’s 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of The Christ. THE WAY BACK’s Keith Clarke wrote the original screenplay but it’s since been taken over and had a few rewrites by 12 YEARS A SLAVE’s John Ridley. You’ll know Bekmambetov’s work as it’s incredibly visceral and falls somewhere in-between Ridley Scott and Zack Snyder with the likes of NIGHT WATCH (2004) and ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER (2012) – The latter being better than you’d think!

Morgan Freeman is no stranger to epic tales and is the first fully confirmed member of the cast, with Tom Hiddleston still being a rumour, but with him on board it’ll surely perk the interest of other top names. BEN-HUR has set itself a 26th February 2016 release date so they’d better hurry up!

Thanks to our friends over at Deadline for this following synopsis:

BEN-HUR is set along the parallel storyline of Jesus Christ, but with specific focus on the blood feud between Judah Ben-Hur and Messala, who grew up best friends before the Roman Empire took control of Jerusalem. Judah Ben-Hur was a Jewish prince and Messala the son of a Roman tax collector. After the latter leaves to be educated in Rome for five years, the young man returns with a different attitude and mocks Judah and his religion. When a procession passes by Judah’s house and a roof tile accidentally falls and hits the governor, Messala betrays his childhood friend and manipulates the accident so that Judah is sold into slavery and certain death on a Roman warship, with his mother and sister thrown in prison for life. Judah vows revenge, culminating in the famed chariot races.

Source: Deadline

Dan loves writing, film, music and photography. Originally from Devon, he did London for 4 years and now resides in Exeter. He also has a mild obsession with squirrels and cake. The latter being more of a hobby. Favourite movies include HIGH FIDELITY, ALMOST FAMOUS, ROXANNE, GOOD WILL HUNTING, JURASSIC PARK, too many Steve Martin films and Nolan's BATMAN universe. He can also be found on www.twitter.com/danbullock

1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. Bonafide

    Sep 22, 2014 at 5:39 am

    A Ben Hur remake? Probably loaded with CGI chariots. I’ll stick with Heston, thank you.

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