Fox to Tell Moses Story with ‘300′ Visuals

Published by Jeff Leins on: October 13th, 2009

20th Century Fox is planning to re-tell the biblical story of Moses using the visual style and modern effects of Zack Snyder’s 300. This is the first major acquisition for new Fox chief Peter Chernin.

The story will start with Moses’ near death experience as an infant, his adoption into the Egyptian royal family, “defiance of the Pharaoh and deliverance of the Hebrews from enslavement.” I can’t wait for a Gerard Butler type to yell, “Let my people GOOOOO!” Spartan style.

According to Variety, the idea was pitched by Adam Cooper and Bill Collage, who just completed the script for a “re-imagining” of Moby Dick for director Timur Bekmambetov. They’re going for a feel closer to Braveheart than Charlton Heston’s The Ten Commandments, though I doubt Mel Gibson will be involved with this one…

Since 2004’s Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, studios have been using the digital backlot technique to recreate locations and sets with green (or blue) screen technology. It’s used to keep costs down (only a $60M budget for 300) on what would otherwise be expensive productions. The same effects were used in Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City and the Wachowski’s Speed Racer.  It should be easy to part the Red Sea when it’s all CGI.