Sir Ridley Scott has found himself embroiled in a race row after his latest film was branded ‘too white’.

Twitter users are urging a boycott of Exodus: Gods and Kings, which tells the story of Moses, calling it ‘offensive’ and ‘unacceptable’ that white actors are playing the roles of Egyptians.

Sir Ridley, who made his name as a director with Alien and has been Oscar-nominated three times, defended his casting by claiming he would not have been able to finance its £90million budget if he had hired unknown Egyptian actors instead of established Hollywood stars.

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Hollywood’s forthcoming Moses movie - Exodus: Gods and Kings - isn't in cinemas yet but that hasn't stopped it coming in for renewed criticism, this time over the decision to cast white actors as Egyptians

Scott has been bullish about the issue of casting and recently told Variety that it was a business decision to hire white actors

The title role is played by Christian Bale, which one Twitter user said was ‘akin to casting George Clooney to play Malcolm X’.

The film, which opens on Boxing Day, also features Sigourney Weaver, Australian Joel Edgerton and Aaron Paul, who is best known for his role as Jessie in the hit television series Breaking Bad.

While a number of ethnic minority actors have also been cast, including Sir Ben Kingsley, the majority of the non-white performers are in background roles, often even playing slaves or criminals.

But this has done little to placate the critics. One Twitter user said: ‘I’ll be boycotting Exodus and so should everyone else to tell Hollywood that whitewashing is sick and unacceptable’, while another called the casting of Oscar-winner Bale as ‘offensive’.

On Twitter, the hashtag #boycottexodusmovie has been trending, with posters expressing their anger over the casting decisions

People have been using Twitter to call for a boycott of the movie based on the fact that all the leads are played by white actors

Another said: ‘Blacks only cast as slaves, thieves ... Not the kings and queens? I hope Exodus bombs at the box office’.

Sir Ridley defended the casting in an interview with Variety magazine. ‘I can’t mount a film of this budget and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such,’ he said.

‘I’m just not going to get it financed. So the question doesn’t even come up.’

Holy Moses! Bale’s controversial comments weren't well received by Christian writers and bloggers who fear the film is tampering too much with the original Biblical text

Exodus: Of Gods and Kings, out in December 12, tells the story of Moses rising up against the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses and taking 600,000 slaves on a monumental journey of escape from Egypt

He had previously tried to placate his critics by promising that the film would show ‘a confluence of cultures’.

He added: ‘There are many theories about the ethnicity of the Egyptian people and we had a lot of discussions about how to best represent the culture.

‘We cast major actors from different ethnicities to reflect the diversity of culture, from Iranians to Spaniards to Arabs.’

This is not the first time Exodus has found itself mired in controversy. Bale was criticised for comments he made in September, when he described Moses as ‘schizophrenic’ and ‘barbaric’.