First photos of new BEN-HUR remake have been released

The 1959 film Ben-Hur is considered to be one of the greatest films of all time, with the original classic being the first film to ever win 11 Oscars (Titanic and Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King being the others) and was also a monumental financial success, despite its long run time of over 3 hours. It is a masterful movie and even if you watch it today, the story and acting is still top notch and captivating.

So, any remake of this revered film (which in itself was a remake of an earlier silent film and based on a novel: Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ) is bound to have its work cut out for it as it tries to live up to these high expectations. And so far, the studio has actually been doing their best not to reveal too much about the film, to keep expectations as low as they possibly can, which is a good thing for this movie. Particularly around the lead character himself who is going to be played by the relatively unknown Jack Huston. The 1959 version had Charlton Heston play the title character and it is probably his greatest acting performance ever and is considered as one of the greatest performances of all time.

However, we now do have some first photos of the film being released to the public and what Jack Huston looks like in the role. You can’t tell much from photos, but at least the look and feel of the film is right and Huston looks like a good resemblance of what you may expect the character to look like. We also get to see a little snippet of Morgan Freeman’s character in the film as well.

Still early days and until we see some actual footage, I will remain skeptical about this one. It will probably not live up to the 1959 classic, but hopefully it can make its own mark and do something different with the film.

Ben-Hur is the epic story of Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston), a prince falsely accused of treason by his adopted brother Messala (Toby Kebbell), an officer in the Roman army. Stripped of his title, separated from his family and the woman he loves (Nazanin Boniadi), Judah is forced into slavery. After years at sea, Judah returns to his homeland to seek revenge, but finds redemption.

This adaptation is directed by Timur Bekmambetov and will be released on August 12 of this year.

Last Updated: March 15, 2016