Deadline is reporting that Steven Spielberg is near to etching in stone with Warner Bros on a movie portraying the Jewish leader as the warrior to beat all warriors. With a working title of "Gods And Kings," what’s envisioned is “a movie like a Braveheart-ish version of the Moses story,” an insider tells Deadline. And despite the awesome screen possibilities of the parting of the Red Sea, the movie isn’t being contemplated in 3D. In 1956, Paramount released "The Ten Commandments" in VistaVision to give moviegoers a more spectacular experience of scenes like that. But this film is as far from a remake of the Cecile B. DeMille-directed epic as you can get even though they cover similar ground. Instead Warner Bros wants Spielberg to direct it with the gritty reality of Saving Private Ryan, which is considered a masterpiece redefining battle movies. ”There have been glossy versions of the Moses story but this would be a real warrior story,” an insider tells Deadline.
The studio has wanted Spielberg on the project since last September when he first read the script. Talks intensified, and now insiders tell us the dialogue should consummate by the end of the month. Warner Bros wants to start production sometime in March or April of 2013.
Spielberg just finished directing "Lincoln" and is already working on Robopocalypse. Spielberg wants a big film next and this is it: "Ten Commandments" was one of the most profitable films of its era, grossing $65 million in 1956 — which in today’s dollars is equivalent to close to $1 Billion theatrical. Spielberg helmed another seminal Jewish movie, "Schindler’s List" which won seven Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director.
Meanwhile this marks the second high-profile film Warner Bros is developing on a seminal Jewish hero. Mel Gibson and Joe Eszterhas are collaborating on their pitch to tell the story of Jewish warrior Judah Maccabee, who teamed with his father and four brothers to lead the Jewish revolt against the Greek-Syrian armies that had conquered Judea in the 2nd century B.C. Gibson has the first option to direct, and he will produce the film through his Icon Productions banner.
