Ticket sales for the live stadium show Ben Hur are expected to skyrocket after Oscar winner Russell Crowe decided to join the 200-strong cast for two Sydney performances.
Crowe, who won an Oscar playing the Roman commander Maximus in Ridley Scott's 2000 epic film Gladiator, will be the narrator of the production, which tells the story of a galley slave who dared to defy the Roman Empire.
"It's not a play. It's not a musical. It's a spectacle. And you know you've got your chariot races, you've got a boat being boarded by female pirates, Pontius Pilate making his decision over Christ's future, so it's gigantic, it's amazing," Crowe said in Sydney on Tuesday.
The $15 million production of the two performances will be held at Sydney's ANZ Stadium on October 22 and 23.
The stadium will be transformed into a Roman amphitheatre and feature a full-scale chariot race and sea battle as well as stages representing the town of Judea and the Roman Senate.
Executive Producer Andrew Guild said the show's creators were ecstatic about Crowe's involvement.
"When the producers of this particular production suggested that Russell was interested and had shown some interest, they were absolutely - well, what can I say? - they were gobsmacked," Mr Guild told reporters.
It is still unclear if Crowe will narrate the performances live or pre-record them - a decision the actor says is completely up to French director Robert Hossein.
"I've played around with the script. They've given it to me and I've recorded a few versions of it, but I'll be having that conversation with the director when he gets here, and we'll see how we're going to work it out then," Crowe said.
"There's a thousand moving parts or more as you can imagine with something like this, so we'll let him tell me."
Adapted from the famous 1959 Oscar-winning film Ben Hur starring Charlton Heston, the Australian performance of Ben Hur - The Stadium Spectacular is the first time the production has been outside of France.
It premiered in Paris in 2006, where it drew in audiences of 300,000 over a five-night run.
Mr Guild said Stadefrance Live Events, which created the original French production, was thinking of sending it not just to Australia but around the world.
"They can see that it can be done in one of these enormous venues 12,000 miles away," Mr Guild said.
The Australian production is "well underway" with preparations, says Mr Guild.
"The horses are currently in training and have been already for three months up in Queensland, (and) the chariots have arrived from Paris," he said.
"The ship with 32 containers left about a week ago from France, bringing all the scenery and costumes out and rehearsals for the production will start on the 5th of October."
The show will require an enormous amount of rehearsal, particularly for potentially dangerous stunt scenes involving chariot races and a sea battle.
"The action is very much choreographed. These things don't happen by chance," Mr Guild said.
"It's like any theatrical production. When you see someone flying in Mary Poppins or disappearing into the stage in Wicked, when you see someone falling out of a chariot, or wheels falling off chariots and chariots crashing, these things are very carefully worked through and very carefully rehearsed."
Crowe said he was looking forward to working on such a "gigantic" and ambitious project which is expected to be "bigger than Ben Hur".
"All I can see in this is a great deal of fun," Crowe said.
"I just had to get involved. I think it's going to be a hoot."
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