Christ, ran to about 550 pages. Zimbalist hired a number of screenwriters to cut the story down and turn the novel into a script. According to Gore Vidal, more than 12 versions of the script had been written by various writers by the spring of 1958. Vidal himself had been asked to write a version of the script in 1957, refused, and been placed on suspension for his decision. Karl Tunberg was one of the last writers to work on the script. Zimbalist had initially chosen director Sidney Franklin to helm the picture, and Tunberg consulted with Franklin about the script. Tunberg cut out everything in the book after the crucifixion of Jesus, omitted the sub-plot in which Ben-Hur fakes his death and raises a Jewish army to overthrow the Romans, and altered the manner in which the leperous women are healed. The silent film version had introduced Esther early in the picture, rather than midway as in the novel, and Tunberg retained this feature in his script as well. But Zimbalist was unhappy with Tunberg's script, and felt it was "pedestrian" and "unshootable". The writing effort changed direction when Franklin fell ill and was removed from the production. Zimbalist offered the project to William Wyler, who had been one of 30 assistant directors on the 1925 film, in early 1957. Wyler initially rejected it, considering the quality of the script to be "very primitive, elementary" and no better than hack work. It lacked good characterization, the dramatic structure was poor, and the leads were uninteresting (just "villains and heroes"). Zimbalist showed Wyler some preliminary storyboards for the chariot race, and Wyler began to express an interest in the picture. Zimbalist told Wyler, "Forget the chariot race. That's just second-unit stuff", stating that the real challenge would be to give the picture "body, depth, intimacy", which Wyler was renowned for. Zimbalist also told Wyler that MGM would spend up to $10 million on the film, and Wyler, impressed with the large budget, agreed to review the script a second time. The more Wyler thought about the story, the more he became intrigued with its possibilities. However, according to a report in The New York Times, Wyler refused to take the job until he was sure he had a good leading man. MGM permitted Wyler to start casting, and in April 1957, mainstream media outlets reported that Wyler was giving screen