Schindler’s List director Steven Spielberg is to make a film about the life of Moses, 53 years after Charlton Heston’s Ten Commandments.

The Jewish director is currently in talks to film “Gods And Kings”, a screenplay by Michael Green and Stuart Hazeldine, which covers the whole of Moses’ life from a baby in the bulrushes, to the burning bush and the emancipation from Egypt.

Mr Spielberg previously advised the animated story of the Exodus, the 1998 “Prince of Egypt”.

Mr Spielberg is not the first Hollywood heavyweight to plan a film about famous Jewish figures this year. Mel Gibson is said to be making an epic of the Chanucah story of Judah Maccabee battli ng the Greek-Syrian army.

Mr Gibson, who has made notoriously antisemitic comments, drew criticism from rabbis and Jewish leaders for his association with a film about a Jewish hero.

Rabbi Marvin Hier,from LA's Simon Wiesenthal Centre, said: “Warner Bros is making a terrible mistake. Most of the people that are going to come to a film about Judah Maccabee are the Jewish community. Surely they know the Jewish communities are not going to come to this film.”