Arias to Star in the Historial Epic “Ben-Hur”

It’s a (Hollywood) epic win for Moises Arias

The 20-year-old Colombian American actor and former Hannah Montana star has joined the cast of Ben-Hur, the historical epic Timur Bekmambetov is directing for MGM and Paramount Pictures.

Moises Arias

Arias will play Gestas, a teenage Jewish zealot whose family has been murdered by the Romans, who is desperate to fight for his people’s freedom.

Jack Huston, Morgan Freeman and Toby Kebbell star in the production, which will be shot in Europe ahead of a February 26, 2016 release.

In addition to be being a former Disney Channel star, having appeared on Hannah Montana and The Wizards of Waverly Place, starred in the 2013 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize-nominated film The Kings Of Summer. He also lent his voice recently to Despicable Me 2 and appeared in Summit’s sci-fi film Ender’s Game.

He’ll next appear in the Sundance 2015 drama Stanford Prison Experiment opposite Ezra Miller, Michael Angarano, and Billy Crudup, in which Arias will play one of several university students tapped for the real life role-play exercise that got dangerously out of hand.

Orci Reportedly In Talks to Helm the Next “Star Trek” Film

Roberto Orci may boldly go where J.J. Abrams has gone before…

The 40-year-old Mexican American film and television writer and producer is reportedly the clear frontrunner to replace J.J. Abrams as the director of the third installment of Paramount’s Star Trek series.

Roberto Orci

Following what it calls “an aggressive lobbying campaign,” Deadline.com reports that Orci and Paramount Pictures are in talks.

Orci was a co-writer and producer on 2009’s Star Trek and it’s 2013 sequel Star Trek Into Darkness.

The news comes after Orci parted company with longtime partner Alex Kurtzman on film projects; they still continue to work on television projects together, including Sleepy Hollow and El Rey Network’s upcoming series El Matador.

It would Orci’s first time in the director’s chair, although he has plenty of experience on massive projects beyond Star Trek, including The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Ender’s Game and Cowboys & Aliens.

Abrams had helmed the first two Star Trek films, but surprised Paramount officlas by agreeing to relaunch the Star Wars franchise and direct the first film at Disney.