Ridley Scott and the Old Testament aren’t really two things that you would expect to come together in a creative project, but at the very least you can assume this about Exodus: it’ll be really interesting.
The film already has Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton on as Moses and Ramses, but the Hollywood Reporter has more news on the rest of the Pharaoh family as it fills out. Sigourney Weaver will be taking the role of Tuya, Ramses’s mother (and so presumably Moses’ adoptive mother), with John Turturro as her husband, and you may commence humming any piece of music from The Prince of Egypt… now.
Aaron Paul is in talks to play a “supporting role as a Hebrew slave” who may or may not be Joshua, rounding out what’s so far a particularly white cast, considering its setting and time period. Then again, I can’t say that historical bible is something that’s even remotely within my wheelhouse, so I could be wrong. An all white cast is certainly just as annoying as a cast where all the Egyptians are undefinable shades of brown and all the Hebrews are recognizably white. (I’m looking at you, Avatar: The Last Airbender. Or I would be, if you had ever existed. Which you didn’t. It’s too bad, really, I feel like a live action adaptation of The Last Airbender is something fans would get really excited about.)
IMDB has Exodus slated for a 2014 release, probably late 2014, if the film is still in pre-production and in talks with castmembers. It’s hard to imagine Ridley Scott, of all people, making a straight retelling of a book of the Old Testament, especially one with a very well established and beloved live action cinematic adaptation, so I’ll be interested to see what angle or twist the director is taking on the story.
(picture via Flickr, story via The Hollywood Reporter.)
