Ben-Hur: Remaking a Classic

Charlton Heston was unforgettable in the epic film, “Ben-Hur.” The powerful, sweeping story was a cinematic monster success in 1959, earning 11 Academy Awards. It went on to gross nearly 10 times its $15 million budget.

Now, opening today, comes a new $100 million “Ben-Hur,” an updated reimagining of that film from producers and faith-based project veterans, Mark Burnett and Roma Downey. Directed by “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’s” Timur Bekmambetov, the film also stars Morgan Freeman.

“It required a little boldness.”

The new movie, which follows the old story, somehow also has a modern touch to it. Actor Jack Huston, from “Boardwalk Empire,” plays Judah Ben-Hur.

Messala, played by actor Toby Kebbell (who was in this summer’s “Warcraft” movie), is his adoptive brother. The two are split in first-century Palestine over the Roman occupation. Messala becomes a Roman soldier. Judah Ben-Hur, siding with his Jewish heritage, is sent into slavery — by Messala. The brothers eventually meet again — for the famous chariot race.

But the story isn’t about revenge. It’s about reconciliation and redemption, a message that the filmmakers hope resonate in the world today.

Remaking a classic film is always risky. Not only does Huston have a tall order in living up to Heston, but the chariot race and slave ship scenes were so iconic that audiences will expect them to be every bit as thrilling as they were in the original. A daunting task, to say the least.

Agreeing to do the project seemed “crazy,” admitted Burnett in an interview with EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo.

“It required a little boldness,” Downey added.

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Burnett, who made a name for himself in reality competition TV with “Survivor,” has lately carved out a niche with bible projects and wife Downey. This is the couple’s fourth in four years — 2013’s “The Bible,” 2014’s “Son of God,” 2015’s “A.D.” and now “Ben-Hur.”

“There’s a value to experience, no question,” says Burnett. “Whether you’re playing a sport, race car driving, or making biblical content. There’s a value to the experience.”

It would have been easy to say “no thanks” when asked by Gary Barber, the chairman of MGM to help produce the film, says Burnett. “But clearly the Lord … directed the head of a studio to offer us to contribute to bring this epic movie” to life.

The producers feel the message is needed now more than ever.

“We’re living in a hurting world,” says Downey. “This movie has been created in a way that it will attract an audience of all ages … It’s an action/adventure movie and it delivers. It’s fantastic. But it holds within its heart this precious message of mercy, of forgiveness, of reconciliation. While these things are big and biblical in our story, they’re relevant to everybody.”

Unlike in the 1959 film, where the camera never showed Jesus’ face, in this “Ben-Hur” you get to see Jesus.

“You see him portrayed by Rodrigo Santoro in a beautiful, strong … performance. He’s really dynamic in the role,” says Downey.

Related: The Power of Forgiveness

“Nobody finds it easy to be forgiving. It takes work,” says Burnett. ” The natural human inclination would be revenge. So what is the motivation for forgiveness? We’re told by Jesus if you don’t forgive, you will not be forgiven. And if you’re not forgiven, you’re basically canceling your ticket to heaven. Really, you should wake up and realize it’s the only solution if you want to go to heaven.”

And even people who are not of faith can still identify with the two strong main characters on every level, says Burnett. But he’s particularly proud of the action side of the film, which he hopes will draw a younger audience. Steps were taken to make the chariot race scene look as realistic as possible, Bekmambetov has said, with the actors dragged by real horses at high speeds around the arena while a truck with a camera tracked their movements from the side.

“You inhale when that race begins and those horses come hurtling down that track — and 15 minutes later possibly you exhale,” says Downey.

Of the $100 million film, Burnett adds, “What we have here is not a low-budget Christian movie. This is a big-budget, epic movie. It happens to have a through-line of Jesus.”