From Greg Ellwood‘s Hitfix report about yesterday’s viewing of Exodus footage plus a q & a with Christian Bale: “While I was still trying to wrap my head around it I went and rented The Life of Brian, which is a favorite film of mine,” said Bal. “The point being that not only do I enjoy that film a great deal, but anything you are approaching from a very earnest point of view can unintentionally be the Life of Brian very quickly. It was sort of a guiding light for me. And I must confess that ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ is always humming in the back of my head.
“And then immediately after that I rented Mel Brooks‘ History of the World, Pt. 1 because you have to get that out of your system. You have to understand, ‘What is it we could make funny?’ You have to have humor. With something that is as earnest as this. And this heavyweight as this you have to have an element of comedy in your every-day shooting or it just becomes exhausting.”