Ben-Hur Is Being Remade Because Christian Movies Are So Hot Right Now

Charleton Heston / Ben Hur

The people who produced “The Bible” (movie, not book) and the guy who directed “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” are making another Ben-Hur. That’s sure to end well.

[Deadline has the story](http://www.deadline.com/2014/04/jesus-whisperers-mark-burnett-and-roma-downey-board-mgmparamounts-ben-hur/) that Mark Burnett and Roma Downey are producing so it’ll be nice and Christian, Timur Bekmambetov is directing so there will be lots of slow motion and bad CGI, and Keith Clarke and John Ridley are scripting so… oh wait, John Ridley just won an Oscar for _12 Years a Slave_ so there is some hope I suppose.

Whether or not there is hope though if I’m being honest I just don’t see the point of this movie. Other than the dollah dollah bills they hope to make by riding the current trend of Christianity/Biblical stories being brought to the big screen. Ben-Hur is a classic and one that totally holds up. Next you’ll tell me that they’re going to remake _The Ten Commandments_ or _Lawrence of Arabia_. Actually the former of those likely will happen now that I think about it.

To be fair I suppose this isn’t a remake of _Ben-Hur_, MGM holds the rights to that but the novel upon which it is based is in the public domain so this is technically a “new adaptation” and not a “remake.”

Anyway the point is that hopefully this will be good but [insert commentary on producing original material instead of cash grab remakes here].