The Biblical story of Moses gets a cinematic re-telling in Ridley Scott’s latest film, “Exodus: Gods and Kings,” an interpretation of the slavery and eventual freedom of the Hebrews from Egypt as told in the Book of Exodus.

In the film, the defiant leader Moses (Christian Bale) rises up against the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses, setting 600,000 slaves on a monumental journey of escape from Egypt and its terrifying cycle of deadly plagues.

The cast includes Joel Edgerton, John Turturro, Aaron Paul, Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley.

To ensure the film’s accuracy to the biblical text, Pinewood Studios approached Alan Lloyd, one of the world’s leading Egyptologists, and made him the film’s historical consultant.

Lloyd was invited to Pinewood Studios where the production utilized various sound stages, and the back lot, to build their sets, including the interiors of royal palaces, before filming on location in Spain and on the Canary Islands.

Lloyd was impressed with the production’s desire to portray ancient Egypt as accurately as possible in all its splendor—the opulent royal households and monuments—and finery, and, in contrast, the squalor suffered by the Hebrew slaves who were used to build their fabulous cities.

He provided invaluable guidance on architecture, the clothes, jewelry and makeup they wore, the rituals they performed and the way they lived about 1300 BC.

“I think the cinema plays a very important role in this respect,” Lloyd said. “There will have been many people who have developed a lifelong interest in Egyptology through seeing things like ‘The Egyptian’ and ‘The Ten Commandments,’ and so on. Even if they don’t go on to become paid-up Egyptologists, like myself, they will form part of the huge constituency of people who have quite a deep interest in ancient Egypt, and this film will certainly help in that respect.”

“Exodus: Gods and Kings” opens in theaters nationwide on Dec. 5.