He ended up turning down Darren Aronofsky‘s Noah, but could Christian Bale be taking on another Biblical epic? We got word last night that Warner Bros. is attempting to move ahead on their Moses tale Gods and Kings, with Steven Spielberg dropping the project and Ang Lee perhaps picking it up, but now we’ve got major news on a rival film surrounding the Biblical figure.
According to Deadline, 20th Century Fox is hard at work crafting Exodus for director Ridley Scott and now our first hint at casting has come in, with Bale reportedly be courted to lead. There’s not too many details on the project yet, but we know an initial script is coming from Adam Cooper and Bill Collage, who only previously gave us the comedies Accepted and (part of) Tower Heist. It’s an odd fit, which is perhaps why Steve Zaillian (Schindler’s List, American Gangster) has recently stepped in to provide a rewrite.
Scott is currently in post-production on his drama The Counselor, but he intends to move directly into this project. Judging from the title we can expect the bulk of the plot to deal with Moses’ movement of the Jews out of Egypt, which then led to them getting lost in the desert for 40 years, whereas WB’s project is more of complete biopic on the life of the religious figure. Bale would certainly fit the role and considering his only confirmed project is David O. Russell‘s Abscam film (which is momentarily kicking off production), he could fit this one in next year if everything goes according as plan.
Can you picture Bale as Moses for director Ridley Scott?