Flavorwire

One of the most expensive movies in motion picture history, William Wyler’s 1959 epic, Ben-Hur, is being rebooted according to Deadline. Charlton Heston starred in the Academy Award-winning saga (11 wins to be exact), which was originally adapted from Lew Wallace’s 1880 novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. MGM will develop their reboot based on a script by Keith Clarke (The Way Back). The studio originally released Wyler’s movie, but rights have since been transferred to Ted Turner. The book is public domain material, and was a best seller in its day, boasting more sales than the Bible — at least until Gone with the Wind was released in 1936. While the film focused on the feud between Judah Ben-Hur (Heston) and Messala (Stephen Boyd), the reboot will “tell the formative story of the characters as they grew up best friends before the Roman Empire took control of Jerusalem.” The new movie will also tell a “parallel tale of Jesus Christ, with whom Ben-Hur has several encounters which moves him to become a believer in the Messiah, and which culminates in Christ being sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate.” Is it possible to top the original?