Exodus: Gods And Kings ((EXCLUSIVE))

Moses, however, unlike in the 1956 Cecil B. DeMille version, is not. The baby-in-the-basket story is told, not seen; when we meet Moses, he's a man, living like a brother alongside Ramses, with Ramses' father, the pharoah Seti (John Turturro). A prophecy says Moses will save Ramses in battle and become a leader of men, and Seti recognizes that Moses is the better man, but Moses is a born skeptic. He doesn't believe in prophecy or in gods. He has a self-righteous streak that will get him in trouble, though, when he pays a visit to Viceroy Hegep (a smarmy Ben Mendelsohn, the best thing about the movie) and warns him to stop living like a king: "You're not one."

Exodus: Gods And Kings

Ridley Scott is one of the most powerful directors working in Hollywood. (If he can get The Counselor made, he can do anything.) Following The Counselor, Scott turned to the story of Exodus, and cast a predominantly white cast for the film Exodus: Gods and Kings. Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II is played by Joel Egerton, who among the least-Egyptian actor working right now. An outcry resulted in part because the "gods and kings" of the title are all white, while the slaves in the film are black. We're evidently not quite to the point where this won't happen, but we're definitely in a place where more audiences realize that the Exodus whitewashing is ridiculous. 041b061a72