I hope this is the right forum:

I am watching King of Kings and am trying to see if some of he events are accurate. I was surprised to know that the dance of herod's stepdaughter and the killing of John the baptist is as it was written in the bible.

I am trying to see if Lucius, the roman officer serving under both Herod and Pilate, was an actual person. Does anybody have any information on this? And the film portrays pilate's wife as having attended the gathering of the jews when Jesus spoke to the massive crowds. Do you think this is just thrown in for plot?

No, I don't think such a scene would've been "just thrown in" without awareness of the longstanding portrayal of Pilate's wife as sympathetic to Jesus, as is the case in Matthew 27:19 and in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus.

Besides King of Kings, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ shows Pilate's wife acting in sympathy with Jesus by bringing Mary some cloths to clean Jesus' blood off the ground. I'm sure there many other similar characterizations of Pilate's wife.

I wish we knew more about Pilate's wife. Unless we do, and I've just never found it or heard it. She intrigues me.

If I'm remembering right, I seem to recall that she had some sort of dream about Jesus as well.

Matthew 27:19 While Pilate was sitting in the judgment hall, his wife sent him a message: "Have nothing to do with that innocent man, because in a dream last night, I suffered much on account of him."

WHATTA CLIFFHANGER!!!!!

Also, for some reason.... when I read this: "his wife sent him a message"... somehow, I'm seeing her sending him a text message.

Pilate's wife is mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew. Is she mentioned in the Gospels of Mark, Luke or John?

it does not appear to be the case

5 years! That has gotta be a record of some kind!

not even close

Can't remember where I saw it, but someone uncharitably referred to this movie as "I Was a Teenage Jesus." I confess that that particular movie version of the life of Christ always struck me as shallow.

Which version of 'King of Kings' are you referring to? I agree that King of Kings (either version) is not a very good movie, but it is light years ahead of its main competitor from the same era, George Stevens 'The Greatest Story Ever Told'. I have often joked that while it might be called 'The Greatest Story Ever Told', it is, in reality, one of the worst movies ever made. King of Kings, while bad, is at least watchable, while TGSEV is so dull that I have never ever actually been able to watch it all the way through in a single sitting if I try to do so, I usually fall asleep about halfway through.

The sad part is that George Stevens was actually a really good director, he was the director of several movies that have since become classics, including 'Shane', which is one of my favorite movies. He also directed 'Gunga Din', 'A Place in the Sun' and 'I Remember Mama', all good movies. But during the production of TGSEV, the movie just kind of spun out of control, and it turned into a disaster. The movie was a monumental flop (immortalized in Michael Medved's 'Golden Turkey Awards' as one of the biggest flops of all time) and Stevens'
career never recovered. Although star Max Von Sydow's career took off.

Doom, I'd have thought you'd be more charitable toward King of Kings. After all, if it weren't for that film, and the fact that its production resulted in star Jeffrey Hunter being unavailable when NBC finally greenlit production of Star Trek, all the world would have known of William Shatner's overacting was a sublime episode of The Twilight Zone.

Incorrect. Jeffrey Hunter had no real interest in Star Trek and refused to return for the second pilot because he preferred working in movies. King of Kings was filmed in1960 and released in 1961. While the first pilot for Star Trek wasn't filmed until 1964, and the second pilot was filmed in 1965. As it is, Hunter died in 1969 in the middle of what would have been Star Trek's third season.

One ironic fact is that Hunter's next film after King of Kings was named 'Man-Trap', while 'The Man Trap' was a first season episode of Star Trek that NBC decided to use as the pilot (even though it wasn't intended to be the pilot.)

I stand corrected regarding Jeffery Hunter. I know I was just beginning my appreciation of Star Trek when I learned that version of why Captain Kirk replaced Captain Pike in TOS - long before Google and Teh Interwebz. I just never questioned it. But according to Google, KoK did indeed occur several years before the first TOS pilot. Learn something new every day, I guess.