14 DAY TRIAL // Before critics turned on Darren Aronofsky’s “Noah” and various religious groups protested it because of the way certain themes were treated, and before it basically became clear that religious movies are a major gamble, Ridley Scott also agreed to direct one: “Exodus: Gods and Kings.”
It has a cast even more spectacular than “Noah” but fans will have to wait until December to see if it will share its fate at the box office and with the critics. Meanwhile, we have the first photos of leading man Christian Bale in character.
He plays Moses, the prophet who fought Pharaoh Ramses and freed 600,000 slaves, whom he then led through the desert to escape from Egypt. Joel Edgerton plays Ramses.
One photo of Bale in character is made available by Entertainment Weekly, while the other by Empire magazine. EW has more photos from the set and with the other characters, including an unrecognizable Edgerton as Ramses and Sigourney Weaver as Tuya. The mag promises even more photos in this Friday’s print issue.
“Exodus” also stars Ben Kingsley, John Turturo, and Aaron Paul and, according to Ridley Scott himself, though it seemed not much of a challenge on paper, it turned out to be a real one.
“What I thought I knew about Moses I didn’t really. Either I wasn’t paying attention in Sunday school or I had forgotten. I was knocked out by who he was and the basics of the story – it has to be one of the greatest adventures and spiritual experiences that could ever have been,” he tells EW.
Shooting took place in various locations, from Spain to the Canary Islands, and the production was grueling. Scott makes it a point that there’s nothing “mild” about Moses or the Exodus, so movie buffs should expect the same from his film, which, EW adds, will be “epic.”
We’ll see about that, won’t we?
[Update, July 3, 2014]: The Empire photo is an old one. Only the EW pics are new, and the article has been updated accordingly.
