Son Of God’s Mark Burnett, Roma Downey Producing Ben-Hur Remake

After the many, many media firestorms that rained down on Darren Aronofsky’s controversial (but very successful) Noah, it would seem wise that Paramount, which just announced a deal to produce a Ben-Hur remake with MGM, would make sure their next Bible film is blessed.

And indeed it may be just so, as news broke Friday afternoon that the studios have conjured up the forces of Mark Burnett and Roma Downey to produce and help guide a movie that will be adapted from a source material with the subtitle A Tale of the Christ.

The deal locks in the stamp and reputation of Burnett and Downey who in addition to producing a series of popular reality television shows have recently earned the air of authenticity with faith-based audiences when they produced last year’s widely popular The Bible miniseries on the History Channel. That series, which premiered to 13.1 million viewers for its first episode, also served as the basis for this past February’s sleeper hit, Son of God, a theatrical re-edit of footage already in the miniseries that went on to make $67 million at the global box office.

While that number pales in comparison to the $300 million Paramount’s own Noah has taken in to date, there is little denying that the Old Testament film suffered an imaging problem that did not get churches and congregation groups to see the movie en masse, such as Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ did in 2004 to the tune of $600 million worldwide—at a time with a less Hollywood-devouring global market.

This attempt to possibly bridge the gap between the devout and the moviegoing faithful could be a savvy business decision in this remake of the 1959 William Wyler epic.

We have conflicted feelings about this. While it continues to vindicate the Resurrection of the Biblical Epic, a predicted feat that is no longer too surprising since this spring’s Noah has gone on to gross $300 million worldwide in only three weeks of release. Nonetheless, Ben-Hur (1959) is a personal favorite of mine and is arguably the best movie ever based around a biblical story.

Granted, the 1959 picture, which was directed by William Wyler and starred cinema’s closest approximation of a marble statue in one Charlton Heston, is also a remake of the iconic 1925 movie of the same name. And both are adaptations of American Civil War Union veteran General Lew Wallace’s 1880 novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. However, Ben-Hur is obviously one of those rare instances where the film adaptation’s cultural impact, at least in the 20^th century-onwards, transcends its literary source. Also, it is hard to imagine CGI or digital video surpassing the stunning use of 70 millimeters and in-camera stunts for the chariot race.

But like the titular Hebrew, perhaps we should stop fighting with our own self-doubts and embrace the future to come?

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