Stars of new Ben-Hur movie meet Pope Francis

Friday, April 24th, 2015

Pope Francis has blessed Rodrigo Santoro, the Brazilian actor cast in the role of Jesus in new version of the biblical epic Ben-Hur.

Timur Bekmambetov’s movie is currently being filmed in Rome.

Santoro and fellow cast member Nazanin Boniadi attended a weekly papal audience last week during a break from production, where they met Pope Francis.

In March, Italian archaeological officials banned producers from filming chariot racing scenes inside Rome’s Circus Maximus.

The production was forced to re-create the ancient site in a local studio instead.

The film is expected to be in cinemas in February next year.

Additional reading

News category: News Shorts.

Tags: Ben-Hur, Chariot racing, Circus Maximus, Pope Francis, Rodrigo Santoro

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