in Orlando. With its famous chariot race and early technicolor sequences, “Ben-Hur” was selected for preservation by the U.S.

There was a time when Hollywood would put all of its chips on the epic movies set in ancient Egypt or the Roman Empire to bring home huge box-office dollars. But it looks like that time is over.

Judah Ben-Hur lives as a rich Jewish prince and merchant in Jerusalem at the beginning of the 1st century. Together with the new governor his old friend Messala arrives as commanding officer of ...