'BEN HUR' To Be Adapted Into Live Action Show in UK

UK news service WENN reports that Movie classic Ben Hur is to be turned into a live action show for a new London spectacular. Ben Hur Live will have its world premiere on September 15, 2009, and will mark the movie's 50th Anniversary.

German producer Franz Abraham has spent the last 15 years devising the multi-million dollar production and it will finally be seen by audiences when it debuts at the capital's O2 Arena next year.

Abraham told BBC News, "I have aimed to create something completely new, with a high level of artistry, that would excite the audience. The show will have the speed of a musical, the depth of great theatre, the power of a rock concert and the visual opulence of a Hollywood blockbuster."

Ben Hur is the story of a rich Jewish prince and merchant in Jerusalem at the beginning of the 1st century under the influence of the oppressive Roman Empire. The show will feature special light, sound, water, wind, and pyrotechnic effects. The show will also include 400 performers and 100 animals including horses, donkeys, camels, chickens and eagles. The highlight of the epic promises to be the climatic chariot race as depicted by Charlton Heston in the Oscar winning 1959 film, based on the novel Ben Hur - A Tale of Christ by Lew Wallace. The thoroughbred horses will undergo 12 months of intensive training with a team of trainers and charioteers.

The historical story will be played out with a full symphonic soundtrack created by Hollywood producer Klaus Badelt.

This is not the first time that the Hollywood epic has been recreated live. Two years ago, a French production played to 300,000 people at Paris's Stade de France. Going back even further, we know that scenes from Lew Wallace's book were often performed in theatrical spectacles in the early 20th Century.

Tickets for the new production will go on sale on November 14th, with the world premiere taking place at the O2 September 15, 2009. After two further performances in London, the show will tour Europe.

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