Ewan McGregor has one holy new role. The August: Osage County star, 43, will be playing Jesus Christ in an upcoming film.
An early photo for the drama Last Days in the Desert made its way online on Wednesday, Dec. 10, showing McGregor as Jesus.
In the promotional image, the actor is shown in tattered clothes and with long brown locks. Sporting a scruffy beard, he stands in front of a desert and stares intently off-camera.
It was announced this past February that McGregor had signed on for the drama. Last Days in the Desert is led by writer and director Rodrigo Garcia (Blue), and will also feature Tye Sheridan (Mud), Ciarán Hinds (Game of Thrones), and Ayelet Zurer (Man of Steel).
Due out in 2015, the film features McGregor as "Jesus – and the Devil – in an imagined chapter from his forty days of fasting and praying in the desert."
McGregor is the latest star to take on the hefty role of playing Jesus. The part was previously given to H.B. Warner in 1927's The King of Kings, Willem Dafoe in 1988's The Last Temptation of Christ, Max von Sydow in 1965's The Greatest Story Ever Told, Jim Caviezel in 2004's The Passion of the Christ, and Diogo Morgado in 2014's Son of God, among others.
