A first trailer for August’s Ben Hur sets up a revenge plot to drive slave Judah Ben-Hur up against childhood friend and Roman army officer Messala.
Jack Huston of Boardwalk Empire stars as the title character, a slave looking for justice after old friend Messala (Toby Kebbell, Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes) took his freedom for personal gain.
In this latest adaptation of Lew Wallace’s great 1880 novel, an update in which Ben-Hur and Messala are raised not just as friends but also as brothers, Morgan Freeman appears as Ben-Hur’s advisor, Sheik Ilderim.
The original has Judah’s life intersecting with another famous 1st Century Judean, and Paramount Pictures teases a thematic switch in describing Ben-Hur’s story as one in which he “seeks revenge, but finds redemption”.
Almost half a dozen previous adaptations of Ben-Hur have made it to film or TV screen, the most well known of which was 1959’s MGM production, with Chartlon Heston in the lead role and 11 Academy Awards to its name. – AFP Relaxnews
