Actors: If you want to do right by Jesus Christ, you better go and get a blessing from the Pope. Or so seems to be the thinking of Rodrigo Santo, the actor playing Christ in next year’s re-make of Ben-Hur.
The film is shooting in Rome, and the actor set aside some time for a visit with Pope Francis this week, and the Pope returned in kind with a blessing on the man who will play the King of Kings.
The 2016 Ben-Hur is just the latest retelling of the classic story of the fall into slavery and redemption of Judah Ben-Hur. The most well known (but not even close to first) was William Wyler’s 1959 epic starring Charlton Heston in the lead. If you haven’t seen it, you are probably familiar at least with the famous chariot racing scene. That Ben-Hur won 11 Academy Awards (still the most ever), and is regarded as one of classics of the Hollywood-Epics-of Bible-Times genre filmed in the mid-20th century.
That Ben-Hur is being remade now is not surprising. The Bible has been a recent hit in Hollywood, as studios have found an appetite on film and television for stories rooted in Biblical stories, Christian history, and modern Christian faith. The success of History Channel’s miniseries The Bible, Fox Studios’ Son of God and the college classroom drama God’s Not Dead, have shown that the audiences who are interested in stories of faith are willing to support such titles.
That doesn’t even include the recent Major Hollywood Epics, like Ridley Scott’s Exodus or Darren Aronofsky’s Noah. Everyone wants to get in on the bible, it seems.
But not everyone comes with a Papal Approval. That comes to the Jesus Christ of Ben-Hur. The re-make is being helmed by the Russian-Kazakh action/horror director Timur Bekmambetov, and will star Jack Huston in the titular role. It is slated for release February 26, 2016.
