Thanks to Times of Malta, we have our first look at Alejandro Amenabar’s next movie Agora, an Egyptian epic based around the fourth century AD.

The film stars Rachel Weisz as an astrologer-philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria who fights to save the collected wisdom of the ancient world. Max Minghella plays her slave, who must juggle his desire for freedom by joining Christianity or giving himself up to his mistress.

It’s Amenabar’s second English-language movie after The Others. His films in his homeland include Open Your Eyes (the original version of Vanilla Sky) and The Sea Inside.

His intention with the movie is to make the setting as epic as possible - to make this feel real allowing the characters to not stand-out against the backdrop of what looks like a Hollywood set. It’s very much a throwback to the kind of long-assed Egyptian movies of the 50’s and 60’s and is about as far away from  Stargate and The Mummy as you could imagine.

Filming began in October and should be wrapped sometime in June. It’s the biggest and longest production ever seen on the small island of Agora and all being well it should hit sometime between September 2009 and November 2009.

source - coming soon 

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The awesome Rachel Weisz who wisely didn’t want to touch The Mummy 3 with a barge pole is returning to Ancient Egypt after all, for the epic movie Agora says Variety.

The film is from Spanish maestro Alejandro Amenabar, the brilliant helmer of Open Your Eyes (the original mind-bending thriller which got a Hollywood remake as Vanilla Sky), The Sea Within and The Others, possibly the best period horror film for decades.

Set in Roman Egypt in the fourth century A.D. Weisz plays astrologer-philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria, who fights to save the collected wisdom of the ancient world. Her slave Davus (Minghella) is torn between his love for his mistress and the possibility of gaining his freedom by joining the rising tide of Christianity.

Minghella refers to Max Minghella, the 22 year old English actor who appeared in Syriana and has a large role in the upcoming British drama Hippie Hippie Shake. The dude was 13 when Weisz burst onto the scene in The Mummy. Nine years later he goes to Egypt and will likely get a love scene with the ultra hot Weisz, the god damn lucky son of a bitch!

I really like the work of Amenabar, a guy who remarkably seems to be growing with each film he works on. Weisz is one of the best around. This has suddenly become a movie I just can’t wait to see.

I hope it’s epic… as epic as frikkin’ Cleoptra. We haven’t really had that period set epic Egyptian movie so for long, though with Amenabar it will almost certainly be a much more grounded dramatic character piece.

Principal photography will begin in Monday in Malta for a Madrid based production company.