We appear to be in a new period of sword and sandal epics. There have been a recent spate of films featuring Hercules, the ill-conceived Pompeii, the slightly better conceived 300: Rise of an Empire, and of course, Aronofsky’s Noah. Soon entering the fray will be Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings, in which Mr. Scott goes boldly where Cecil B. DeMille has gone before.
20th Century Fox recently released a new batch of images from the film in anticipation of the first trailer (which is coming with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes next week), and they feature stars Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton and Sigourney Weaver.
Bale will star as the most Anglo Moses since Charlton Heston, battling it out with the Pharaoh Ramses (Edgerton, here seen channeling his inner Yul Brenner). The film will be a retelling of the Moses story, as he leads his people out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley, and John Turturro round out the starry cast.
Ridley Scott has made some pretty good epics in the past, though his more recent forays into filmmaking have left something to be desired. It’s rather difficult not to compare this film to the films of directors like Cecil B. Demille, who did the Moses story with The Ten Commandments. While I’m sure it will be interesting to see what Scott makes of this story, I remain skeptical, especially after looking at these images. It all looks rather like a costume party to me.
Exodus: Gods and Kings will come to theatres on December 5. Check out the latest images below and come back next week when the trailer premieres.
