Casting and Blog for Ben Hur

Filming for the Ben Hur mini-series started last week in Ouarzazete, Morocco, utilising the museum there for the interior scenes of the Governor's Palace.

Meanwhile, The Hollywood Reporter has revealed the names of the pricipal actors involved in the production. Joseph Morgan (Master and Commander takes the title role, opposite Stephen Campbell Moore as Messala. The film's biggest name looks to be Ray Winstone who plays the Roman who adopts him, Quintus Arrius. The cast will also include Emily VanCamp (Esther), Kristen Kruek (Judah's sister Tirzah), Hugh Bonneville (Pontius Pilate), Alex Kingston, Lucia Jimenez, Miguel Angel Munoz, Marc Warren, Art Malik and James Faulkner (Marcellus).

The producer of the series, Simon Vaughan, has started a blog charting the progress of filming, and there are already a good number of on set photos of the cast and crew, including the above of Morgan and director Steven Shill.