Producers of The Bible brought in to make new Ben-Hur extra Jesus-y
MGM’s remake of Ben-Hur has long promised to have an even greater focus than the 1959 original on the parallel story of Jesus, whose journey to the cross provides the thrilling chariot race for mankind’s soul—not to mention the irresistible marketing angle for Hollywood’s current thirst for bible movies. And to that end it’s now added producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, whose involvement with History’s The Bible (and its greatest-hits comp movie Son Of God) has made their names a sort of recognizable brand to faith-driven consumers—like Tyler Perry, were he more explicitly Jesus-y.