Boardwalk Empire's Jack Huston Cast as BEN-HUR in Remake

Boardwalk Empire co-star Jack Huston has landed the role of Ben-Hur in director Timur Bekmambetov's version of the classic story. Huston will join Morgan Freeman, previously cast in the role of Ildarin, who teaches Ben-Hur to race chariots.

There was a chance that Tom Hiddleston could have taken the part, but it looks like he opted to take the lead role in Legendary Pictures' King Kong prequel Skull Island. It would have been great to see Hiddleston in the role, but Huston is a pretty damn good choice as well. I'm sure he'll be awesome in the role, but it also means that he is likely out of the running for Doctor Strange.

The film will be based on the 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ, which was written by Lew Wallace. Here's a previously released description of what the film will focus on:

"This version plays up the parallel storyline of Jesus Christ, but the focus is the blood feud between Judah Ben-Hur and Messala, who grew up best friends before the Roman Empire took control of Jerusalem. Judah Ben-Hur was a Jewish prince and Messala the son of a Roman tax collector. After the latter leaves to be educated in Rome for five years, the young man returns with a different attitude and mocks Judah and his religion. When a procession passes by Judah’s house and a roof tile accidentally falls and hits the governor, Messala betrays his childhood friend and manipulates the accident so that Judah is sold into slavery and certain death on a Roman warship, with his mother and sister thrown in prison for life. Judah vows revenge, culminating in the famed chariot races."

Bekmambetov has a unique and cool directing style, and it will be interesting to see how he incorporates that style into this kind of movie.

Source: THR