On the one hand: GROAN. Ben Hur is literally THE WORST. So pious. So self-mythologizing. Yuck. On the other hand: Jack Huston! WHAT A DISH! The BBC is reporting today that the yummy Boardwalk Empire actor has been chosen to play Judah Ben-Hur, the Jewish prince played by Charlton Heston in the classic 1959 version of the movie. Charlton Heston. Don’t get me started on Charlton Heston. I SPIT on Charlton Heston. Patooey. The new version which will also star Morgan Freeman, is scheduled for release in February 2016.
Interesting thing about Jack Huston. Of course we all know he’s a HUSTON Huston of the Hollywood Hustons. But did you know that his mother was Lady Margot Lavinia Cholmondeley and his maternal grandfather was Hugh Cholmondeley, 6th Marquess of Cholmondeley? Huston is also the nephew of David Cholmondeley, 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley. And that through his maternal grandfather’s father, Huston is descended from Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain. Jack’s maternal grandfather’s mother, Sybil Sassoon, Marchioness of Cholmondeley, was from a Jewish family (from Iraq, India, and Germany) through Sybil, Jack is descended from both David Sassoon, the Treasurer of Baghdad, and Mayer Amschel Rothschild, who founded the Rothschild family international banking dynasty. (This was all via IMDB)
Which sort of explains those captivating good looks of his, doesn’t it? They change one from minute to the next, you know, and from one angle to another; He’s both a rough-and-tumble manly man (from the Huston side of the family, no doubt) and a prettyboy aristo (from mummy’s side) – two seemingly incompatible types of hotness that blend together beautifully in his face.
Watch him go from roguish to louche and back again in these pics.
The post Casting News: Jack Huston to Star in Ben Hur Remake appeared first on World of Wonder.