Ridley Scott talks ‘Exodus clarity’

Ridley Scott says Exodus: Gods and Kings has “clarity” classic historical epics lack.

The Academy Award-nominated director is currently promoting the new film, based on the biblical story of how Moses played a role in freeing Israelites from slavery in Ancient Egypt.

He chose to capture Exodus with digital cameras and Ridley is happy with how the cinematography turned out.

“I like the clarity of this world,” he revealed in an interview with Empire Online. “It’s a world we’ve done a few times in the past few years and the early Hollywood films did a good job, but I think we are in a position to do a better job now, because we don’t have to build so much. We can go immense with relative ease and confidence. This is not going to look like a matte painting.”

The first trailer for Gods and Kings was released to fans on July 8.

But Ridley reveals the promo only gives viewers a small taste of how grand the visual effects are in the film.

“I’ve held back a bit – wait till you see the movie,” he said. “You must never oversell yourself. You’ve got to wait till you’re three weeks out, then you go for it. This is a big movie. 1300 effects shots is a lot. Not compared to something like Star Wars, sure, but we’re not ‘effecty’ in that sense of the word. One of the things that has come off really well is the reality of the characters. You wouldn’t call it an effects film even though in many ways a lot of what was needed is extraordinary. There were things I couldn’t build. But in today’s world the effects are so good that it looks real, effectively.”

Exodus: Gods and Kings, which stars Christian Bale and Sigourney Weaver, will be released in December.