Ridley Scott appears to be pulling out all the stops when it comes to casting his upcoming film Exodus. While the film already has Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton attached to play Moses and the evil Egyptian pharaoh Ramses, today it's been revealed that the movie will actually be an incredibly impressive ensemble. Deadline is reporting that Aaron Paul, Sigourney Weaver, Sir Ben Kingsley, and John Turturro are all either set or in negotiations to star in the new biblical epic.
Scripted by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Steve Zaillian, whose previous credits include Schindler's List, Moneyball, and Gangs of New York, the film will tell the story of how Moses was able to successfully free the Jewish people from bondage and slavery in Egypt and lead a pilgrimage to the Promised Land in Israel. According to the source, Paul is in talks to play Joshua, "the Hebrew slave who leads the people into the promised land after Moses"; Weaver is set to play Tuya, Ramses' mother; Turturro is set to play Seti, Tuya's husband and Ramses' father; and Kingsley is in talks to play "a Hebrew scholar." Variety says that cameras are currently scheduled to start rolling next month and that the production will be doing a bit of globe-trotting, set to shoot in England, Spain and Morocco.
Paul has spent the last five years giving audiences heart attacks playing Jesse Pinkman on the soon-to-end series Breaking Bad, he's getting prepped to make a major splash on the big screen soon. In addition to Exodus, next year we will also see him play the lead role in the video-game adaptation Need For Speed - which will be out in March. He has also wrapped on the Pascal Chaumeil-directed dramedy A Long Way Down, which co-stars Rosamund Pike, Imogen Poots, Pierce Brosnan, Toni Collette and Sam Neill.
Weaver, who previously worked with Scott on both Alien and 1492: Conquest of Paradise, has also been doing a good bit of television work recently, playing the lead in the miniseries Political Animals, but she also recently signed on for the Mortal Instruments sequel (which may or may not happen after the first film's less-than-stellar opening at the box office this past weekend). She is also still attached to star in James Cameron's Avatar 2, which is currently scheduled to hit theaters in 2016.
Of all the stars that have been added to the Exodus cast Kingsley has been the busiest on the big screen in 2013. In addition to some smaller projects, the Oscar winner starred in Shane Black's Iron Man 3 back in May and will soon be seen in the anticipated adaptation of Ender's Game, which will be coming out on November 1st.
Lastly there's Turturro, who just recently directed the upcoming comedy Fading Gigolo, which stars both himself and Woody Allen. While the movie doesn't have a release date just yet, it will soon be showing at the Toronto International Film Festival, and you can watch the first trailer below,:
