Presence

No, not Elvis. One Night With the King is a cinematic retelling of the Book of Esther. Check out the two trailers, the first with requisite Hollywood voice over and dramatic music, the second with...Enya? Yeah...somehow I don't think this is going to be quite the cultural juggarnaut that Passion of the Christ was.

As for the cast: John Rhys-Davies is pretty awesome in whatever, but I can't imagine he was sitting at home in his library, smoking a pipe in his high-back leather chair, reading the classics, thinking, "Oh, how I've longed to play Mordecai! I could play him with such gravitas!" As for everyone else, well, you've got to feed the monkey.

I think they could have done a lot better with the title. Also, inquiring minds want to know: will Vashti have a tail?

The cast list is interesting: Peter O'Toole is playing Samuel (The Prophet, not The Sperling), some other guy is playing Jesse, which suggests that the narrative will go beyond the content of the Book of Esther itself, in an attempt to frame the story in a greater historical context. I wonder, as the folks behind this film are most certainly not Members of the Tribe (the homepage includes the logo of the American Bible Society, whose mottoe is "Sharing God's Word with the World") if they've taken some creative liberties and included some Chrisitan/Messianistic overtones.

One last note: the cast lists Xerces as the king, no mention of any Achashverosh. Just an interesting note, for those who are in the know; I don't want to get into the whole thing right now, as I haven't had my coffee yet (actually, I don't drink coffee). [Thanks Sara K. for the tip!]