In September, we learned that Warner Bros. and producers Dan Lin and Matti Leshem were aiming to get Steven Spielberg to direct the biblical epic about the life of Moses, Gods and Kings.  According to Twitch, this lofty aspiration has surprisingly led to formal talks with the legendary director.  I can understand the appeal for Spielberg who likes going big with his movies, and Gods and Kings would present him with the challenge of measuring up to Cecil B. Demille's 220-minute Moses epic, The Ten Commandments.  While most studios today would never allow an almost four-hour movie into theaters, I'd be interested to see if Spielberg could get away with it (assuming he wanted to make a four-hour movie).Michael Green and Stuart Hazeldine's script covers "the life of Moses from birth to death."  Hit the jump for a great recap of the major episodes in Moses' life.  Spielberg's next two films, The Adventures of Tintin and War Horse, are due out next month, and he's prepping to go into production on his Abraham Lincoln biopic, Lincoln, starring Daniel Day-Lewis.moses-rembrandt-paintingHere's the great recap of Moses' life that Brendan wrote back in September:

  • Moses is born in Egypt at a time when all newborn Israelite boys are to be killed.  His mother sends him down the Nile to save his life.
  • One of Pharaoh’s daughters finds baby Moses, and raises her as his own.
  • When he is grown, Moses kills an Egyptian who is beating a Hebrew slave.  He flees Egypt.
  • God appears to Moses in the form of a burning bush, and instructs Moses to deliver the Israelites out of slavery.
  • With Moses as his mouthpiece, God unleashes ten plagues on Egypt.  Among them: frogs, hail, locusts, and death to the firstborn of every household that neglected to smear lamb’s blood across their door frame.
  • Pharaoh finally lets the Israelites go.  They sing “When You Believe.”
  • Moses parts the Red Sea on the way out of Egypt—just long enough to allow millions of Israelites to pass through and zero Egyptians.
  • The Israelites set off to wander the desert for forty years.
  • God drops bread from the sky, and enables Moses to produce water from rocks.
  • Moses meets God on a mountain, where god gifts him the Ten Commandments, inscribed on two tablets by God’s finger.
  • While he’s up there, the Israelites start worshipping a golden calf.  Moses is livid when he sees this, breaks the tablets, and orders the death of 3,000 of the disobedient.  He goes back up the mountain to get more tablets.
  • More wandering.
  • In the end, God lets Moses see the Promised Land.  But Moses dies before he can enter because of that time he hit the rock when he was supposed to speak to it.