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Chariot racing goes back thousands of years and so do attempts to fix the race... Now it turns out that not only did ancient Greeks and Romans exhort the deities to ruin their rivals' beasts: Jews were hexing the horses too and betting on their favorites. The first-ever evidence of Jewish cursing in sports was found in a rolled-up metal tablet that had been located in ancient Antioch by Princeton University researchers in the 1930s – and had been left rolled up until now. The tablet, about 9x6 centimeters in size, dated to about the 5th or 6th century C.E.,...

In Yorkshire, a Chariot from the Iron Age was found, making it the second such find in two years. In a small town in Yorkshire named Pocklington, on a construction site, houses were built. The discovery was made. There has now been a delay in construction on the homes as a new dig begins in October. Interesting is that not only the chariot is discovered but the horse’s skeletons are also found that pulled up the wagon and the driver’s human remains.

A nailed-shut amulet uncovered in Turkey in the 1930s, written in Jewish Aramaic and newly translated, pleads for help from Balaam's ass at the track A 5th century ‘curse’ tablet written in Jewish Aramaic from Antioch, Turkey, which was recently deciphered by Tel Aviv University doctoral student Rivka Elitzur-Leiman. (Princeton University) When a typical nailed-shut 5th century curse scroll was uncovered by the University of Princeton in a 1930s excavation under the hippodrome in the city of Antioch (now in Turkey), the team of archaeologists didn’t realize what a unique find they had in hand. It would take almost another...

Ben-Hur? More like Ben-Horrendous. The ancient tale directed by Timur Bekmambetov is officially the biggest bust of summer 2016 and is on track to lose an epic $120 million or more, according to sources close to the film and multiple box-office analysts consulted by The Hollywood Reporter. The Paramount/MGM release has grossed just $54.1 million to date at the global box office since its mid-August debut, including a dismal $25 million domestically. While it has several major foreign markets yet to open, the film is fading fast and will have a hard time getting past $75 million globally, say knowledgeable...

During a weekend with three major new releases, holdovers “Suicide Squad,” from Warner Bros., and “Sausage Party,” from Sony, maintained their top spots at the box office. This means the big-budget reimagining of “Ben-Hur,” from Paramount Pictures and MGM, is one of the biggest flops of the summer. The third version of Lew Wallace’s 19th century novel “Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ” took in an estimated $11.4 million in the U.S and Canada, which was only good enough for fifth place. It met analyst projections of $10 million to $15 million, though the studio was aiming for an opening...

The incredible story of how a disgraced Civil War general became one of the best-selling novelists in American history. Lew Wallace was making conversation with the other gentlemen in his sleeper car when a man in a nightgown appeared in the doorway. The train was bound for Indianapolis and the Third National Soldiers Reunion, where thousands of Union Army veterans planned to rally, reminisce, and march in a parade the New York Times would later describe as “the grandest street display ever seen in the United States.” It was Sept. 19, 1876, more than a decade since the Civil War...

Ben-Hur Official Trailer #1 (2016) - Morgan Freeman, Jack Huston Movie HD There’s a reason why the most classic films rarely get revisited. Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters reboot was probably doomed from the start, given the fact that most of the original film’s fans from its 1984 release are still around, even without the ill-advised politicization that took place after the mediocre trailers hit YouTube. I saw the new Ghostbusters a few weeks ago; it was not as bad as some say or as good as its defenders claim. It was a mediocrity, and an expensive one at that.Even more so...

Archaeologists investigating the Tuscan island of Elba have identified the remains of the villa belonging to the real-life individual that inspired one of the principal characters in the epic tale of Ben-Hur. Overlooking Portoferraio's bay, the once magnificent 1st-century B.C. villa has long been believed to have been owned by Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, portrayed as Ben-Hur in the Hollywood blockbuster starring Charlton Heston. Now in ruins, the property was known as Villa Le Grotte (the Caves) because of the shape of its vaulted facades facing the sea. While Ben-Hur was a fictional villain dreamed up in Lew Wallace's 1880...

This upcoming Friday, April 5, will be the 5th year anniversary of the death of Charlton Heston, one of the greatest actors of all time. His best known roles include The Ten Commandments, The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Agony and the Ecstasy, Ben-Hur, The Greatest Show on Earth, Midway, Planet of the Apes, and Beneath the Planet of the Apes. But Chuck was also known for his political activism. He was originally a liberal Democrat, even supporting the Gun Control Act of 1968 (when asked why he did that, he replied, “I was young and foolish”). But soon aftewards...

The 1959 winner of 11 Oscars including Best Picture and Actor is on TCM tonight at 8:00 PM EST. It's easy to see how far our culture has fallen when a pro-Christianity film like this couldn't be made by Hollywood today. My favorite scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVlf7OiiTJE

Vatican City, Nov 18, 2009 / 03:51 pm (CNA).- The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano (LOR) published several articles in its November 17 edition which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the movie “Ben Hur.”  The film, which was released on November 18, 1959 and starred Charlton Heston, became the first movie to receive 11 Oscar awards. In an article entitled, “Hollywood in Rome For A Christian Story,” LOR explained that the movie was filmed in the studios of Cinecitta by director William Wyler, who created a screenplay free of much of the heaviness of the original novel written in 1880...

BEVERLY HILLS, California, April 7, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In his legendary film career he played saints, geniuses, prophets, soldiers and even the occasional bad guy, but in real life, Charlton Heston was a genuine hero for his defence of civil rights for blacks and for the unborn. His death on Saturday, at age 84, was met with an outpouring of admiration and tributes on the internet and television news and on countless blogs. Admirers lauded him as one of the last of the old-time Hollywood movie stars, and as a man who also embodied in his off-screen life the integrity,...

(ANSA) - Rome, July 15 - The ancients' version of Formula 1 could once again enliven the Italian capital, with a series of high-speed chariot races. The historical society Vadis Al Maximo hopes to stage a major event next year, which would reproduce the thrills and spills of competitive charioteering, beloved of both the Romans and Greeks. ''The event would last three days, starting on October 17, at the same period when the race took place in Roman times,'' explained Vadis Al Maximo head, Franco Calo. ''If possible, we hope to involve charioteers from all over the world''. The initiative...

LOS ANGELES, April 10 (UPI) -- The son of the man who directed the 1959 Hollywood film classic "Ben-Hur" said he is producing a new version of the story as a $30 million TV miniseries. David Wyler, son of director William Wyler, is producing the remake with Alchemy TV, Variety.com reported Thursday..... http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Entertainment/2008/04/10/ben-hur_headed_for_tv_miniseries_remake/2178/

A Worldwide Push To Bring back chariot Racing THE WALL STREET JOURNAL May 24, 2007 SAO SIMAO, Brazil – On a drowsy May day in the country, tractors and combines were lumbering down dirt roads when, suddenly, a cloud of dust rose up on the horizon. Birds scattered. Rumbling across the green landscape came seven racing chariots, each pulled by four horses. Riding in the chariot decorated with an engraving of Alexander the Great was Luiz Augusto Alves de Oliveira, a 50-year-old sugar-cane farmer who has an epic plan: returning chariot racing to its ancient glory. In this May Day...

Reprinted from NewsMax.com Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2006 4:28 p.m. EST Latest on Charlton Heston For those of us who have watched Charlton Heston in "Will Penny” a dozen times, the recent occasion of the Hollywood icon’s 83rd birthday on Oct. 4 brought back those sharp memories of the laconic aging cowboy soon headed to his last round-up. Despite intense interest in the star’s condition — he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2002 — his publicist and family are not responding to requests about his health. Indeed, the last reliable update on Charlton Heston’s battle with the illness came in...

LONDON, England (AP) -- Playwright Christopher Fry, a Christian humanist who helped T.S. Eliot revive verse drama in the 1940s and wrote a number of epic films including "Ben Hur," has died at the age of 97, his son said. Fry died on June 30 in the hospital in Chichester, southern England, Tam Fry said. The cause of death was not announced. A master of whimsical comic verse, Fry's best-known plays, "The Lady's Not for Burning" (1948) and "Venus Observed" (1949), have a sense of benign providence and hope for humanity that struck a chord in a world still coming...

Ben-Hur: General Lew Wallace and Some Little-Known Facts Behind His Famous "Tale of the Christ." The year 2004 witnessed the incredible phenomenon of the film The Passion of the Christ thrusting the story of Jesus into the mainstream culture by means of an entertainment vehicle. Something similar happened 120 years ago through the novel Ben-Hur. Many Christians rejected all fiction on moral grounds, but exempted Ben-Hur because of the place Christ had in it and the light it shed on His day. It was also a gripping (though far-fetched) tale. A Jewish youth, Ben-Hur finds his childhood friend, the Roman...

With a five-day opening weekend gross of well over $100 million, Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” is shocking Hollywood in becoming a certified blockbuster.  Even as recently as this past week, the “experts” were predicting a total opening weekend take of $30 million—slightly more than it made on just the first day.   Thus continues the strange odyssey of “The Passion.”  Easily one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood was planning to write and direct a movie about the most famous and revered figure in history.  And the budget would be nothing: $25 million.  The average movie—not the...