Everything’s coming up Biblical/Egyptian history nowadays. There’s Noah, Ridley Scott‘s Exodus: Gods and Kings, Travis Beacham‘s Hieroglyph, Paramount and MGM’s Ben-Hur remake, the History Channel’s The Bible miniseries (you know, the one with hunky Jesus), and Fox’s just-announced Jesus origin story miniseries. But you know what all of those are lacking? Aliens.
Enter HBO.
Via Variety, Pharaoh “revolves around ancient Egypt and the influence of alien beings as an alternative explanation for the rise of empires in the region.”
So… Stargate?
Developing the show is David Schulner, consulting producer on NBC’s Dracula and co-executive producer of the short-lived 2009 drama Kings, which everyone on Tumblr is watching now that they’re obsessed with Sebastian Stan. (Seriously, he’s good in it, but my god a show has never been cursed with a more boring pair of romantic leads.) Pharaoh, if HBO decides to pick it up, will be executive produced by Ridley Scott, whom Variety also says will also be on some directorial duties.
Ridley: Pharaoh sounds ridiculous, and I am generally in favor of ridiculous things, so I’ll give this one a shot even if the whole “LOL there’s no way ancient civilizations could have accomplished spectacular feats of engineering, are you crazy?!” thing makes me headdesk into the fifth dimension. But. The main cast of your other Egyptian history/mythology project, Exodus: Gods and Kings, is 90% white. Christian Bale is Moses. Aaron Paul is Joshua. Sigourney Weaver is someone named Tuya. Joel Edgerton is the Pharaoh Rameses, and Joel, I love you, but no. In fact, most of the projects I listed up there in the first paragraph are remarkably pale. I want people of color in Pharaoh, sir, and it doesn’t count if the color is green and the people are aliens.
(via: Blastr)
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