Pontius Pilate gets a movie.
Since Hollywood’s been there, done that, with Biblical figures such as Jesus, Mary, Moses, and now Noah, Warner Brothers is digging a little deeper to find someone who has that Bible name recognition but hasn’t been done to death. They came up with Pontius Pilate. Deadline says WB bought a script about Pilate from Vera Blasi (“Woman on Top”) wrote the script.
As you may or may not remember, Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor of Judaea during the first century AD, who did not condemn Jesus Christ but allowed his execution. Supposedly Blasi’s script depicts Pilate as a hard-working, ambitious Roman soldier who rises through the ranks until he is given a governorship by Tiberius, the Roman Emperor. He doesn’t get Egypt, as he’d hoped, though, but lands in Judaea, where the religious tensions are at a boiling point. Deadline says:
Blasi’s script reads almost like a Biblical era Twilight Zone episode in which a proud, capable Roman soldier gets in way over his head. His arrogance and inability to grasp the devoutness of the citizenry and its hatred for the Roman occupiers and their pagan gods leads him to make catastrophic decisions. All of this puts him in a desperate situation and in need of public approval when he is asked to decide the fate of a 33-year old rabbi accused by religious elders of claiming he is King of the Jews.
Historical figures such as Tiberius and Caligula supposedly show up, along with Biblical figures Mary Magdalene, John the Baptist, and Salome.
So…casting? Here’s my guess–Christian Bale didn’t make it to “Noah,” but I bet he takes this one.
