There were reports that Rodrigo Santoro, the actor who plays Christ, got an audience with the Pope, and in June, the studio presented an exclusive excerpt from the film at a Christian retail conference in Cincinnati. But the current version not only gives Jesus a prominent onscreen part, it has made him a significant part of the publicity in preparation for its August opening. The most famous version of the story, the 1959 Oscar-winning epic, never showed Christ’s face, and kept religious elements out of most of the promotion. “We co-produced the show with a company in Spain, which is, or used to be, a very Catholic country, but our partners in Spain were very anxious to reduce the amount of religious messaging.” Now, only a few years later, a new movie version of Ben-Hur is coming out, and the producers have no such fear of religiosity-though they might, if the box office returns aren’t good. “We tried to stay away from that subject matter and tell a story that was highlighted by the famous chariot race,” says Canadian producer Michael Prupas, whose company, Muse Entertainment, co-produced the TV miniseries. But those adaptations emphasized the secular elements of the story. The 1880 novel, about a Jewish man who ends up converting to Christianity after an encounter with Christ, became a popular silent film, an even more popular spectacular starring Charlton Heston, and a TV miniseries in 2010 co-starring Emily VanCamp.

There have been many film versions of Ben-Hur, but there’s never been one aimed specifically at the Christian market-until now. (Philippe Antonello/Paramount/Everett Collection)

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