A four-hour miniseries that retells the classic biblical tale of Moses and the Ten Commandments. (2006)
Director Werner Boote is on board of this mini as 2nd unit director and directs stunt-, action- und big crowdscenes. It is ABC´s remake of Cecill B. DeMille´s 1956 movie and is directed by Robert Dornhelm. Produced by Hallmark Entertainment.
Cast: Dougray Scott, Omar Sharif, Linus Roache, Paul Rhys, Naveen Andrews, Mia Maestro, Susan Lynch and many others.
Watch the trailer (Youtube).
26.000 extras in costumes and many battlescenes.
Watch some of the battles in this Youtube-Link.
120 chariots, 200 stuntmen and three months of shooting
"The Ten Commandments" was filmed in Ouarzazate, Morocco, not far from the sand dunes where "Lawrence of Arabia" was shot. The cast and crew braved temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, frequent dust storms, indigenous cobras and even a freak hailstorm. In an eerie echo of the plagues depicted in the story, the storm seriously damaged the lavish Egyptian palaces that were constructed as sets, while the Hebrew slave quarters were relatively unharmed.
Read this article in the New York Times
Robert Dornhelm and Werner Boote know each other for many years.
Boote worked as Dornhelm´s assistent director already during "Requiem for Dominic" (1991).
Find "The Ten Commandments" in the IMDb Database.
crew photo Ouarzazate, Morocco
Background:
Broadcast in mid-April, this two-part mini-series fleshes out some of the biblical material that DeMille left out, such as the Hebrews’ war against the Amalekites; and while this movie depicts the miracles through which God delivered the Israelites, it also emphasizes the sorrow that Moses (Dougray Scott) feels over the deaths of his Egyptian friends and the violence through which the Israelites must defend and discipline themselves.
This time, the necessity of the moral law is communicated through characters who fail to live up to it. One of Moses’ friends commits adultery, then murder, and then he lies to cover up his sin — and once he is exposed, he has to be punished, even though Moses is very aware of his own guilt in some of these areas. (He did kill an Egyptian, after all.)
Message:
Easter is coming, and the movie channels will be running countless repeats of The Ten Commandments
