SHORT TAKES : No ‘Ben Hurs,’ Heston Laments

Actor Charlton Heston predicts that epic films like “Ben Hur” and “Lawrence of Arabia” will soon be as obsolete as silent movies.

“The movie, ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Kids’ cost more than ‘Ben Hur,’ (in 1959 dollars) so that means they don’t make movies like that,” Heston said in an interview this week on the syndicated television show “Personalities.”

“They will never make a ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ again. They will never make ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’ again, which is too bad,” Heston said. “But we got to make those movies, and I’m glad we did.

“People make fewer films now,” Heston said.

Heston, 67, also decried the high price of a movie ticket.

“You know, I just found out--because I get into a lot of movies for free--that they’re charging $7 to go to a movie in Los Angeles now. Now, that’s terrible.”