Timur Bekmambetov
Ben-Hur actually opens with the horses getting ready to bolt from the gates for the chariot race. That will seem heretical to audiences familiar with the Academy Award winning 1959 version of the story. Younger moviegoers may not even realize this is a remake, and may not even realize that the phrase “chariot race” used to refer to a big movie’s big action climax.
One of the only films that can take on Ghostbusters as the most hated project of 2016 is Ben-Hur. It’s not drawing the same level of public ire, but those with any sense of film history will remember the 1959 epic led by Charlton Heston and immediately wonder why. The complication is that the 2016 Ben-Hur is not a remake of the 1959 film or the 1925 silent version.