Principal photography
On February 2, 2015, MGM and Paramount Pictures announced that principal photography had begun and that, like the original film, filming would take place mostly in Italy, specifically in Rome and Matera. The Sassi di Matera in Basilicata and the Cinecittà studios in Rome were also chosen among the film's settings. In most instances, CGI were used extensively. However, Bekmambetov wanted to rely more on practical effects and tried to do as little CGI as possible in moments where it was not heavily needed.
Producers Roma Downey and Mark Burnett chose Matera as a location for Jerusalem, one of the same locations where Mel Gibson's biblical movie The Passion of the Christ was filmed. Exterior shooting lasted for two months, and finished in early April 2015. Production then moved to Cinecittà Studios, where interior shooting took place for four months, including the chariot scene, among others. Around 2,000 extras were used throughout the film.
In March 2016, Adam Sidman, an associate of Timur Bekmambetov, sent a request to the Bureau of Land Management's South Coast in Palm Springs, which oversees federal land in the Coachella Valley area, asking if the team can shoot a horse scene in the Painted Canyon, which is off Box Canyon Road, with two horses, several cameras, and a film crew of about 30. His application was rejected, and Sidman thought it was because of the size of the production. He then tried to negotiate again, but to no avail. He then contacted the executive director of the Greater Palm Springs Film Alliance office, Levi Vincent, to look into the matter. To Vincent, it almost seemed like the rejection was based on arbitrary reasons. With the help of local lawmakers, they were able to convinced the BLM to approve the request, but this time with a much-scaled down production of 8 crew members, no horses, and the use of a drone rather than handheld cameras.
The famous chariot race sequence, which runs about 10 minutes, almost exactly the same as in the prior films, was originally planned to be filmed in the Circus Maximus arena in Rome; however, producers were denied access by Italy's national cultural authorities due to fears that the stunts would damage the fragile historic site, which was under restoration at that time. The filming location had been approved by local officials, as well as Rome's mayor, Ignazio Marino, who lamented the decision to deny the producers access, saying, "The aim of the city administration isn't so much to raise revenue in exchange for the use of public space, but to give back to Rome the role of being a big international set, which is in our history and our tradition." According to sources obtained by The Guardian, the decision to forbid Ben-Hur from filming there was due to "technical" issues. Though no official reasons had been given, archaeological experts speculated that the influx of heavy filming vehicles and hundreds of extras to the arena could have caused untold damage to the site. However, the Italian cultural minister, Dario Franceschini, declined to comment. As a result, producers were forced to film the scene at Cinecittà Studios, where much of the 1959 film was also shot. It is not clear whether the filmmakers had planned to use that location for the main chariot race, which is supposed to take place in Antioch, or if they were planning to shoot one of the earlier races that Judah Ben-Hur takes part in while he is still living in Rome. Bekmambetov, however, cited the size of the stadium as too large for shooting as the reason.
The whole race was planned in advance, in several iterations of storyboards and animated previsualization videos. In order to re-create the sequence, producers and horse race track experts built a 1,000-foot-long arena, with a 250 metre long and 50 metre wide track, stands, and gates, called Circus Tiberius, at Cinecittà World, a film-themed amusement park about 45 minutes south of Rome. It was built partly on the back lot of producer Dino De Laurentiis's former studio complex. According to production designer Naomi Shohan, arena designs were compiled from archaeological records of circuses in Roman territories. One-sixth of the arena was physically built and the rest was added to the film by computer graphics. Unique chariots were also built based on original references. A total of 86 horses were supplied by horse master Steve Dent, with back-up animals, and were trained for several months, to be able to race at 40 miles per hour. Dent has assembled larger stables for films like Ridley Scott's Robin Hood (2010), but said that "this was more of a worry job." There were 60 handlers for the horses, and 12 horses were put in rotation for every four horse-drawn carriage, so the animals would have a chance to rest. Multiple chariots were made for each character—some with brakes (though the horses are strong enough to overpower the brakes), some with room for a second "blind driver" or 'bonnet-fitted' camera, some with different-sized wheels for filming on the turns instead of the straights, and some to flip over or crash. Massimo Pauletto, an art director on the film who built the chariots, said that his team had to reinvent a forgotten skill, "from the sketches, nobody was understanding how they could become real," and the toughest part was to fit together practical needs and special-effects needs. Problems cropped up day-by-day as the bolts that held the chariots together kept being broken by the horses due to their immense strength, and the bar that attached the horses was bent. As a result, the crew had to learn how to build a new one week after week.
To capture the thunderous feel of the race, the film crew attached microphones to the horses to record the sound of pounding hooves, and GoPro cameras were buried in the sand. The cameras were also planted on chariots and people, one of which was placed on a soccer ball in the middle of the track while the horses ran over it. Huston and Kebbell spent two and a half months preparing and rehearsing to learn how to drive chariot races in Italy, six days a week. It took time for the stuntmen to learn to drive them, and they were only called in for extremely dangerous stunts. But overall, it was actors in the chariots. A total of 20 chariots were used. A bulk of scenes were done using real practical stunts, without any CGI assistance, and digital models were only used when filming was too dangerous. Around 400 extras were used as spectators (which were then increased to around 100,000 with special effects). Bekmambetov's goal was to shoot these action scenes so realistically that the audience feels that they are inside the chariot and driving it. He was inspired by YouTube videos and Instagram photos, "The camerawork is very specific when we see NASCAR or motorbike racing on YouTube. It's either long-lens [close-up] cameras, very professional, or it's iPhone cameras from people in the crowd, cars passing by at the speed of light and they barely have a chance to pan and catch something."
Phil Neilson, who served as the stunt coordinator for the film, had previously worked on many films, including Ridley Scott's Gladiator. Jonathan Stamp, a historian who had consulted on the HBO/BBC series Rome, advised on the film's chariot design. He noted that the chariots in the 1959 film were unrealistically ornate. Filming for this particular scene lasted for 45 days in a span of three months. The inspiration for the use of minimal CGI for this sequence came from Hardcore Henry, on which Bekmambetov was a producer. Accidents were done with computer imagery. The two lead actors did much of their own riding, without harm.
Huston and Kebbell were asked if they wanted stunt doubles for their parts, and they declined.
A stuntman was thrown off from his chariot during filming, but suffered only mild injuries. Another stuntman was thrown from a chariot and run over by the wheel of another. He was later hospitalized and treated for bruised ribs. Bekmambetov said the authentic Roman costumes, with leather straps around the charioteer's chest, prevented that injury from being worse—though Daniel noted that every driver wore Kevlar underneath his costume.
.jpg?width=400)
