Here's a news item that really sparks my interest -- Deadline.com is reporting that Steven Spielberg is on the verge of signing up with Warner Bros. to direct a "realistic' movie about the life of Moses.  The pitch seems to be that it will be closer to Braveheart than to Cecil B. DeMille's classic The Ten Commandments.

Personally, if they’re striving for realism, I hope they try to do it in the original languages — Hebrew and Egyptian — instead of English. That would be interesting and feel more historically accurate.

There will be an uproar if they strive too far from the story told in the Book of Exodus, but it will be fascinating if they avoid over-the-top flashy special effects and tell the legendary tale in a straight-forward manner. They still have to keep the basics of the story and the dramatic high points -- Moses having a spiritual epiphany on Mount Sinai, the plagues that made Pharaoh release the enslaved Israelites, the crossing of the Red Sea, and so on --but it would be great to see it all done in a believable manner instead of through distracting computer-generated-imaging. 

A gritty, realistic depiction of the story would be a great, fresh way to retell the life of Moses faithfully and respectfully, and I'm sure it would be a rousing bit of entertainment as well. 

Spielberg has just finished filming Lincoln and will jump on his adaptation of Robopocalypse next.  I look forward to his Moses biopic, which Deadline.com says has the working title Gods and Kings.  Can't wait!