By Travis Johnson
Another week, another tidbit about the upcoming remake of Ben Hur, which continues to straddle the line between “this could be huge fun” and “who the hell thought this was a good idea?”.
This time out, the good folks of the Paramount marketing department would like to underscore the “epicness” of their upcoming sword and sandal flick, hence the myriad shots of (digital) marching legions, (digital) crashing ships and (digital) far flung locations. There was no snow to be seen in Ben Hur‘s earlier incarnations, if memory serves.
And if you’re worried about the remake sullying the original (or the earlier remake you prefer, which is, let’s face it, the one with Charlton Heston), star Jack Huston has got your back. “I from a very young age was introduced to older movies, my grandfather’s movies, his sort of period’s movies. I think I just found that they were so beautiful because technology wasn’t what it was and it was script and always script first and how you’d tell a great story.” he says. “I rewatch those movies. They’re the movies I go to now. I still like the old movies. So it’s fun doing something like this because it’s sort of paying homage to past films that have been made in this sort of vein.”
The grandfather he’s talking about is, of course, legendary director and actor John Huston, so we might just take him at face value on this one.
Ben Hur opens in Australia on August 25.
