Crazy Ben-Hur remake from the director of Wanted gets a trailer

So you want to remake swords and sandals epic Ben-Hur and the chosen director is the man who made Wanted, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter and Nightwatch.

We're huge fans of Kazakh director Timur Bekmambetov's style, and maybe this is an inspired choice. His visuals are utterly unique and his set pieces totally inspired, so he could be the perfect person to take what had the potential to be another staid and stuffy remake and take it all up to 11. There's certainly evidence of that in the first trailer, which has just debuted.

The boat crash is pure Bekmambetov, with a first person perspective on the chaos of chains and shatteered bodies and vessels. And we're hoping he's able to bring that same energy to the film's central scene, the chariot race between Ben and his brother Messala.

Brit actor Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire) gets the title role here, after names like Tom Hiddleston fell away. In all honesty we're not sure he has what it takes to carry a film of this scale, especially against the likes of Toby Kebbell as his brother. He's a hugely impressive actor who is born to play this kind of over the top role and let's pray he gets to really go there with the performance. Morgan Freeman is also there in the mentor role and 300 player Rodrigo Santoro will feature as Jesus Christ, who has a much expanded role from the meagre appearance in the Charlton Heston version.

Ben-Hur is back on really, really big screens in August 2016.