Premise: Remake Ben-Hur but set in 1980s New York City…

Benjamin (“Ben”) Hur is a lawyer for a real-estate mogul, loosely based on Donald J. Trump. They went to private school together and have enjoyed many adventures out in the big city during their youth. The Mogul is back from Wharton and wants to make make a big real-estate development in the Lower East Side and tries to get Ben-Hur to help him in some shady coercive evictions. Ben Hur, being an honorable man, declines.

Shortly afterwards, Ben Hur and the Mogul are at a club (loosely based on Studio 54). During a big cocaine (or tax-evasion?) bust, the Mogul accuses Ben Hur of comlicity to avoid being tarnished, and Ben Hur is sent to Rikers Island (instead of a Roman prison galley.)

On the way, he is offered mercy by Dorothy Day. (Or maybe Mychal Judge)

While in prison he meets up with founders of hip-hop (loosely based on Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five) who rehabilitate him and he becomes a rap star (in the genre of the Beastie Boys…Beastie Ben?). He begins his new rap career and finds fame.

Ben Hur gets out, and finds that his family has been evicted from their home in the LES and his brother has AIDS (instead of leprosy). Ben Hur vows revenge. He runs into Daniel Berrigan (who is equivalent to one of the Magi in the original film) who he met while they were both serving time in Rikers, who tries to get Ben Hur to support a community housing project in the LES. They have aligned goals, and Berrigan arranges a confrontation between Ben Hur and the Mogul

At the gala opening for a new project, the Mogul hires the latest great rapper…who turns out to be Ben Hur! Then they have an illegal drag race in Queens, and there is a big crash, the Mogul is wrecked and Ben Hur is the champion (cheered on by his new hip-hop friends.)

Using his success, and having gotten the Mogul out of the picture, Ben Hur uses his knowledge of real estate law to help Dorothy Day expand the Catholic Worker houses of hospitality in the Lower East Side and affordable housing in general. After toying with the idea of radically overthrowing the capitalism and real-estate investors (perhaps as part of an ACT-UP protest), his encounters with Day/Judge cause him to have change of heart, he then helps set up the AIDS Hospice at St. Veronica’s church. (In reality, Judge was active in early AIDS ministries, so maybe that’s the right angle for the film) Using his connections to Bronx Hip-Hop and his stardom, he gets his brother access to the early AZT trials at the VA Hospital, saving his life.

Alternatives and pivots:

  • (alternative location ideas include Crown Heights in Brooklyn or the Grand Concourse in the Bronx—all formerly Jewish neighborhoods, in keeping with the theme of the movie, but I think the LES works better for later tie ins)
  • While in Rikers, Ben Hur starts teaching art classes and catches the notice of Andy Warhol who rescues him, and he becomes an art-world darling instead of a rapper. Walk-on parts by other 1980s NYC denizens like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Robert Mapplethorpe. The latter two provide the AIDS/Leprosy angle.