Ben-Hur Remake: Writer John Ridley Speaks

The new "Ben-Hur" film adaptation is currently casting.

 The story is based on the bestselling 1880 book by Civil War General Lew Wallace. The property was adapted for big screen once before as William Wyler's 1959 film starring Charlton Heston.Wallace's novel is in the public domain.

Keith Clarke ("The Way Back") wrote the initial adapted script before John Ridley took over.

Ridley recently spoke with Coming Soon about the project and how it will differ from the classic film:

"It's going to be different in the sense that the original writer Keith Clarke wrote an amazing script and then went back to the Lew Wallace novel and really excavated the relationship between the two main characters, Ben-Hur and Messala. It's interesting to a degree. It's kind of like going after Jimi Hendrix, because there are things about the 1959 movie that we think we remember, there are things that really happened, including obviously the chariot race, so it's going to be different in the sense that we're not really trying to completely chase the movie people remember but there are elements of that movie: the heart of the film, the emotional drive of the film that we want to try to bring to a whole new audience. I think it's an interesting project. It’s certainly challenging. It's certainly one that people are going to come into with expectations, but like anything you do, you gotta exceed those expectations to a degree and also not worry about them because at its core, we hope and believe that we’ve got something that’s unique."

"Boardwalk Empire" and "American Hustle" cohort Jack Huston is playing the lead. The epic drama follows a falsely accused nobleman who survives years of slavery to take vengeance on his best friend who betrayed him. Toby Kebbell will play that best friend, turned villainous Messala--who was portrayed by Stephen Boyd in the cinema classic.

Morgan Freeman will play Ildarin, the man who teaches the slave Ben-Hur to become a champion-caliber chariot racer.

MGM is said to be keen on Russian filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov ("Wanted," "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter") vision which explores the original story's themes of revenge and redemption. Paramount will co-distribute the remake

Sean Daniel and Joni Levin will produce the film.

Production begins in Europe early next year.