LOS ANGELES, Jan 14 — The Timur Bekmambetov remake of 1959 Charlton Heston classic “Ben Hur” will feature Brazil’s “300” actor Rodrigo Santoro in a cameo role as Jesus Christ.

Santoro has successfully crossed over between Latin American and Hollywood productions, with parts in “Love Actually,” “Che,” “I Love You Phillip Morris” and two “300” films alongside award-winning performances in “Bicho de Sete Cabeças” (en. Brainstorm), “Meu Pais” (en. My Country) and “Heleno.”

Pivotal roles have already been allocated to Jack Huston as Ben-Hur, Toby Kebbell as his unfaithful friend Messala and Morgan Freeman as a chariot racing coach, while Santoro is in negotiations to fulfill the role of Jesus, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Though the novel focuses upon the contrasting fortunes of Judah Ben-Hur and childhood friend Messala, Ben-Hur crosses paths with controversial rabbi and folk leader Jesus of Nazareth on several occasions.

With a release date of February 26, 2016, “Ben-Hur” is expected to go into production over the coming months.

Santoro’s other upcoming projects include Will Smith and Margo Robbie heist movie “Focus,” Patricia Riggen’s Chilean mining drama “The 33” with Antonio Banderas, Juliette Binoche and Gabriel Byrne, and soccer biopic “Pelé.”

Most recently, he can be seen in a segment of “Rio, I Love You,” the multi-perspective ode to Brazilian life that forms part of the same series as “Paris, je t’aime” and “New York, I Love You,” and which also features appearances from Jason Isaacs, Harvey Keitel, John Turturro, Emily Mortimer, Vincent Cassel, Vanessa Paradis and Roberta Rodrigues. — AFP-Relaxnews