The Message (1976 film)
The Message is a 1976 epic historical drama film directed by Moustapha Akkad, chronicling the life and times of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Released in Arabic and English, The Message serves as an introduction to early Islamic history; the film was nominated for Best Original Score in the 50th Academy Awards, composed by Maurice Jarre, but lost the award to Star Wars. Muhammed is visited by the angel Gabriel, which makes him shocked; the angel asks him to spread Islam. The entire city of Mecca begins to convert; as a result, more enemies will come and hunt Muhammad and his companions from Mecca and confiscate their possessions. They head north, where they receive a warm welcome in the city of Medina and build the first Islamic mosque, they are told. Mohammed still gets permission to attack, they win the Battle of Badr. The Meccans want revenge and beat back with three thousand men in the Battle of Uhud, killing Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib; the Muslims left the camp unprotected. Because of this, they were surprised by riders from behind, so they lost this time.
The Meccans and the Muslims closed a 10-year truce. A few years Khalid ibn Walid, a Meccan general who killed many Muslims, converted to Islam. Meanwhile, Muslim camps in the desert were attacked in the night; the Muslims thought. Abu Sufyan came to Medina fearing retribution and claiming that it was not the Meccans, but robbers who had broken the truce. None of the Muslims give him an audience, claiming he "observes no treaty and keeps no pledge." The Muslims respond with an attack on Mecca with many troops and "men from every tribe". Abu Sufyan sought an audience with Muhammad on the eve of the attack; the Meccans became scared but are reassured that no one will be abused and any in their house, by the Kaaba, or in Abu Sufyan's house will be safe. They surrendered and Mecca came into the hands of the Muslims; the Pagan images of the gods in the Kaaba were destroyed, the first azan in Mecca was called on the Kaaba by Bilaal Ibn Rabaah. While creating The Message, director Akkad, Muslim, consulted Islamic clerics in a thorough attempt to be respectful towards Islam and its views on portraying Muhammad.
He received approval from Al-Azhar in Egypt but was rejected by the Muslim World League in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Akkad had to go outside the United States in order to raise the production money needed for the film. Lack of financing nearly shut down the film. Financing for the project came from the governments of Kuwait and Morocco, but when it was rejected by the Muslim World League, Emir Sabah III Al-Salim Al-Sabah of Kuwait withdrew financial support. King Hassan II of Morocco gave Akkad full support for the production, while King Khalid bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia and then-Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi provided financial support too; the film was shot in Morocco and Libya, with production taking four and a half months to build the cities of Mecca and Medina as they looked in Muhammad's time. Production took one year. Akkad went to al-Gaddafi for support in order to complete the project, the Libyan leader allowed him to move the filming to Libya for the remaining six months. Akkad saw the film as a way to bridge the gap between the Western and Islamic worlds, stating in a 1976 interview: I did the film because it is a personal thing for me.
Besides its production values as a film, it has its intrigue, its drama. Besides all this I think there was something personal, being a Muslim myself who lived in the west I felt that it was my obligation my duty to tell the truth about Islam, it is a religion that has a 700 million following, yet it's so little known about which surprised me. I thought I should tell the story that will bring this gap to the west. Akkad filmed an Arabic version of the film with an Arab cast, for Arabic-speaking audiences, he felt that dubbing the English version into Arabic would not be enough, because the Arabic acting style differs from that of Hollywood and the Arab world. The actors took turns doing the English and Arabic versions in each scene, both are now sold together on some DVDs. In accordance with the beliefs of some Muslims regarding depictions of Muhammad, his face is not depicted on-screen nor is his voice heard; because Islamic tradition forbids any direct representation of religious figures, the following disclaimer is displayed at the beginning of the film: The makers of this film honour the Islamic tradition which holds that the impersonation of the Prophet offends against the spirituality of his message.
Therefore, the person of Mohammad will not be shown. The rule above was extended to his wives, his daughters including Fatimah, his sons-in-law, the first caliphs; this left his adopted son Zayd as the central characters. During the battles of Badr and Uhud depicted in the movie, Hamza was in nominal command though the actual fighting was led by Muhammad. Whenever Muhammad was present or close by, his presence was indicated by light organ music, his words, as he spoke them, were repeated by someone else such as Zayd or Bilal. When a scene called for him to be present, the ac
Ksar
Ksar, plural ksour is the North African term for "Berber castle" loaned from Latin castrum. The term refers to a Berber fortified village; the counterpart of Maghrebi ksar in literary Arabic, qaṣr, means "castle" or "palace" and it is found in this form elsewhere in the Muslim world. The Berber original word for "ksar" used in North Africa by the Berber-speaking populations is aghrem or igherman. In the Maghreb, the term has a more general meaning of "fortified village,"or "fort"; the Berber word igherman might be a cognate word, with an identical meaning, with the word Garamantes, the name of the ancient Berber city-states in modern-day Libya. Ksour in the Maghreb consist of attached houses having collective ghorfa and other structures like a mosque, bath and shops. Ksour / igherman are widespread among the oasis populations of North Africa. Ksars are sometimes situated in mountain locations to make defense easier; the building material of the entire structure is adobe, or cut stone and adobe.
The idea of the ksar as a granary is a confused notion of two things, the granary itself, found within a ksar, the ksar, a village with granaries within it. Ksars form one of the main manifestations of Berber architecture; the word is part of place names across Morocco and Tunisia, — the region called the Maghreb. Ksar es-Seghir, Moroccan stronghold in the Straits of Gibraltar, between Tangier and Ceuta Ksar el-Kebir, location of the Battle of Alcácer Quibir, influenced Moroccan and Spanish history Ksar Nalut, Libya Ksar Ouled Soltane, Tunisia Maghreb placename etymology Alcázar Ghorfa Ribat www.ksour-tunisiens.com – complete documentation of all ksour of southern Tunisia, Herbert Popp & Abdelfettah Kassah
Kingdom of Heaven (film)
Kingdom of Heaven is a 2005 epic historical drama film directed and produced by Ridley Scott and written by William Monahan. It stars Orlando Bloom, Eva Green, Ghassan Massoud, Jeremy Irons, David Thewlis, Brendan Gleeson, Iain Glen, Marton Csokas, Liam Neeson, Edward Norton, Michael Sheen, Velibor Topic and Alexander Siddig; the story is set during the Crusades of the 12th century. A French village blacksmith goes to the aid of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in its defence against the Ayyubid Muslim Sultan, fighting to claim the city from the Christians; the film script is a fictionalised portrayal of the life of Balian of Ibelin. Filming took place in Ouarzazate, where Scott had filmed Gladiator and Black Hawk Down, in Spain, at the Loarre Castle, Segovia, Ávila, Palma del Río, Seville's Casa de Pilatos and Alcázar; the film received mixed reviews upon theatrical release. On 23 December 2005, Scott released a director's cut, which received critical acclaim, with many reviewers calling it the definitive version of the film.
In 1184 France, Balian, a blacksmith, is haunted by his wife's recent suicide. A Crusader passing through the village introduces himself as Balian's father, Baron Godfrey of Ibelin, asks him to return with him to the Holy Land, but Balian declines. After the town priest reveals that he ordered Balian's wife beheaded before burial, Balian kills him and flees the village. Balian joins his father, hoping to gain forgiveness and redemption for himself and his wife in Jerusalem. Soldiers sent by the bishop arrive to arrest Balian, but Godfrey refuses to surrender him, in the ensuing attack, Godfrey is struck by an arrow that breaks off in his body, leaving a wound that would prove fatal days later. In Messina, Godfrey knights Balian and orders him to serve the King of Jerusalem and protect the helpless succumbs to his injuries. During Balian's journey to Jerusalem his ship runs aground in a storm, leaving him as the only survivor. Balian is confronted by a Muslim cavalier. Balian reluctantly slays the cavalier but spares the man's servant, the man tells Balian that his deed will gain him fame and respect among the Saracens.
Balian becomes acquainted with Jerusalem's political arena: the leper King Baldwin IV. After Baldwin's death, Guy intends to break the fragile truce with the sultan Saladin and make war on the Muslims. Guy and his ally, the cruel Raynald of Châtillon, attack a Saracen caravan, Saladin advances on Raynald's castle Kerak in retaliation. At the request of the king, Balian defends the villagers, despite being overwhelmingly outnumbered. Captured, Balian encounters the servant he freed, who he learns is Saladin's chancellor Imad ad-Din. Imad ad-Din releases Balian in repayment of the earlier debt. Saladin arrives with his army to besiege Kerak, Baldwin meets it with his, they negotiate a Muslim retreat, Baldwin swears to punish Raynald, though the exertion of these events weakens him. Baldwin asks Balian to marry Sibylla and take control of the army, knowing they have affection for each other, but Balian refuses because it will require Guy's execution. After Baldwin dies, Sibylla succeeds her brother, Guy becomes king.
Guy releases Raynald, asking him to give him a war, which Raynald does by murdering Saladin's sister. Sending the heads of Saladin's emissaries back to him, Guy declares war on the Saracens and sends assassins to kill Balian, though Balian survives the attempt. Guy and the Templars march Jerusalem's army despite Balian's advice to remain near water. Saladin's army annihilates the Crusaders in the ensuing desert battle, executes Raynald, marches on Jerusalem. Tiberias and his men leave for Cyprus, believing Jerusalem lost, but Balian remains to protect the people in the city, knighting the men of the city. After a siege that lasts three days, a frustrated Saladin parleys with Balian; when Balian reaffirms that he will destroy the city if Saladin does not accept his surrender, Saladin agrees to allow the Christians to leave safely in exchange for Jerusalem—though he ponders if it would be better if there were nothing left to fight over. In the marching column of citizens, Balian finds Sibylla. After they return to France, English knights en route to retake Jerusalem ride through the town to enlist Balian, now the famed defender of Jerusalem.
Balian tells the crusader that he is a blacksmith again, they depart. Balian is joined by Sibylla, they pass by the grave of Balian's wife as they ride toward a new life together. An epilogue notes that "nearly a thousand years peace in the Holy Land still remains elusive." Many of the characters in the film are fictionalised versions of historical figures: Bloom's character, Balian of Ibelin, was a close ally of Raymond III of Tripoli, the film's Tiberias, a member of that faction which sought a place within the patchwork of the Near East and opposed the aggressive policy of Raynald of Châtillon, the Templars, "fanatics newly from Europe", who refused to come to terms of peace with the Muslims. Balian was a mature gentleman, just a year or two younger than Raymond, one of the most important nobles in the kingdom, not a French blacksmith, his father, founded the Ibelin family in the east, came from Italy. Balian and Sibylla were indeed united in the defence of Jerusalem but no romantic relationship existed between the two.
Balian married Sibylla's stepmother Maria Comnena, Dowager Queen of Jerusalem and Lady
Sahara
The Sahara is a desert located on the African continent. It is the largest hot desert in the world, the third largest desert overall after Antarctica and the Arctic, its area of 9,200,000 square kilometres is comparable to the area of the United States. The name'Sahara' is derived from a dialectal Arabic word for ṣaḥra; the desert comprises much of North Africa, excluding the fertile region on the Mediterranean Sea coast, the Atlas Mountains of the Maghreb, the Nile Valley in Egypt and Sudan. It stretches from the Red Sea in the east and the Mediterranean in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in the west, where the landscape changes from desert to coastal plains. To the south, it is bounded by the Sahel, a belt of semi-arid tropical savanna around the Niger River valley and the Sudan Region of Sub-Saharan Africa; the Sahara can be divided into several regions including: the western Sahara, the central Ahaggar Mountains, the Tibesti Mountains, the Aïr Mountains, the Ténéré desert, the Libyan Desert.
For several hundred thousand years, the Sahara has alternated between desert and savanna grassland in a 41,000 year cycle caused by the precession of the Earth's axis as it rotates around the Sun, which changes the location of the North African Monsoon. The area is next expected to become green in about 15,000 years. There is a suggestion that the last time that the Sahara was converted from savanna to desert it was due to overgrazing by the cattle of the local population; the Sahara covers large parts of Algeria, Egypt, Mali, Niger, Western Sahara and Tunisia. It covers 9 million square kilometres, amounting to 31% of Africa. If all areas with a mean annual precipitation of less than 250 mm were included, the Sahara would be 11 million square kilometres, it is one of three distinct physiographic provinces of the African massive physiographic division. The Sahara is rocky hamada. Wind or rare rainfall shape the desert features: sand dunes, dune fields, sand seas, stone plateaus, gravel plains, dry valleys, dry lakes, salt flats.
Unusual landforms include the Richat Structure in Mauritania. Several dissected mountains, many volcanic, rise from the desert, including the Aïr Mountains, Ahaggar Mountains, Saharan Atlas, Tibesti Mountains, Adrar des Iforas, the Red Sea Hills; the highest peak in the Sahara is Emi Koussi, a shield volcano in the Tibesti range of northern Chad. The central Sahara is hyperarid, with sparse vegetation; the northern and southern reaches of the desert, along with the highlands, have areas of sparse grassland and desert shrub, with trees and taller shrubs in wadis, where moisture collects. In the central, hyperarid region, there are many subdivisions of the great desert: Tanezrouft, the Ténéré, the Libyan Desert, the Eastern Desert, the Nubian Desert and others; these arid areas receive no rain for years. To the north, the Sahara skirts the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt and portions of Libya, but in Cyrenaica and the Maghreb, the Sahara borders the Mediterranean forest and scrub eco-regions of northern Africa, all of which have a Mediterranean climate characterized by hot summers and cool and rainy winters.
According to the botanical criteria of Frank White and geographer Robert Capot-Rey, the northern limit of the Sahara corresponds to the northern limit of date palm cultivation and the southern limit of the range of esparto, a grass typical of the Mediterranean climate portion of the Maghreb and Iberia. The northern limit corresponds to the 100 mm isohyet of annual precipitation. To the south, the Sahara is bounded by the Sahel, a belt of dry tropical savanna with a summer rainy season that extends across Africa from east to west; the southern limit of the Sahara is indicated botanically by the southern limit of Cornulaca monacantha, or northern limit of Cenchrus biflorus, a grass typical of the Sahel. According to climatic criteria, the southern limit of the Sahara corresponds to the 150 mm isohyet of annual precipitation. Important cities located in the Sahara include the capital of Mauritania; the Sahara is the world's largest low-latitude hot desert. It is located in the horse latitudes under the subtropical ridge, a significant belt of semi-permanent subtropical warm-core high pressure where the air from upper levels of the troposphere tends to sink towards the ground.
This steady descending airflow causes a drying effect in the upper troposphere. The sinking air prevents evaporating water from rising, therefore prevents adiabatic cooling, which makes cloud formation difficult to nearly impossible; the permanent dissolution of clouds allows thermal radiation. The stability of the atmosphere above the desert prevents any convective overturning, thus making rainfall non-existent; as a consequence, the weather tends to be sunny and stable with a minimal chance of rainfall. Subsiding, dry air masses associated with subtropical high-pressure systems are unfavorable for the development of convectional showers; the subtropical ridge is the predominant factor that explains the hot desert climate (Köppen climate classifica
The Jewel of the Nile
The Jewel of the Nile is a 1985 action-adventure romantic comedy and a sequel to the 1984 film Romancing the Stone, directed by Lewis Teague and produced by one of its stars, Michael Douglas. The film reunites Douglas with Danny DeVito, all reprising their roles. Like Romancing the Stone, the opening scene takes place in one of Joan's novels; this time, instead of Jesse and Angelina in Joan's wild-west scenario and Jack are about to be married when pirates attack their ship. The Jewel of the Nile sends its characters off on a new adventure in a fictional African desert, in an effort to find the fabled "Jewel of the Nile"; the Jewel of the Nile is notable for its top 40 theme song performed by Billy Ocean, "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going". Taking place six months after the events in Romancing the Stone, Joan Wilder's and Jack Colton's romance has grown stale. While moored at a port in the South of France, suffering writer's block, wants to return to New York, while Jack prefers aimlessly sailing the world on his boat, the Angelina.
At a book signing engagement, Joan meets Omar, a charming Arab ruler who wants Joan to write his biography. Joan leaves with Omar over Jack's protests. Jack runs into Ralph, the swindler from Jack and Joan's previous adventure in Colombia, who demands Jack turn over the gem Jack and Joan found. Shortly after, an Arab, informs Jack about Omar's true intentions and claims that Omar has the "Jewel of the Nile". Ralph and Jack team up to find the fabled jewel. Joan soon discovers that Omar is a brutal dictator rather than the enlightened ruler he claimed will unite the Arab world. In the palace jail, Joan encounters Al-Julhara, a holy man, the "Jewel of the Nile" and whom Omar fears; the pair escape and find Jack, they flee into the desert in Omar's hi-jacked F-16 fighter jet. Ralph is captured by Tarak's rebel Sufi tribe who are sworn to protect the Jewel so he can fulfill his people's destiny. After encountering a Nubian mountain African tribe and Jack's romance is rekindled. Joan tells Jack. In Kadir, Omar intends to use a smoke-and-mirror-special effect provided by a British rock promoter to convince onlookers that he is the prophet who will unite the Arab world.
Jack, Al-Julhara arrive to expose Omar but are captured. Omar suspends Joan with ropes over a deep pit while Al-Julhara is in a stockade; as Omar takes center stage to address the Arab people and Joan disrupt the ceremony while the Sufi battle Omar's guards. A fire breaks out. Jack and Joan are separated, Omar corners Joan atop the burning scaffolding. Aided by Ralph using a giant crane, Jack reaches Joan in the nick of time and knocks Omar over the side and down into the flames, killing him. Al-Julhara rises and safely walks through the flames, fulfilling the prophecy that he is the true spiritual leader; the following day and Joan are married by Al-Julhara. While Ralph is genuinely happy for Jack and Joan, he laments once again having gained nothing for his efforts, but Tarak acknowledges that he is a true Sufi friend and presents him with a jeweled dagger as Jack and Joan sail away down the Nile. With a $21 million budget, principal photography began April 22, 1985 with filming wrapped on July 25, 1985.
Location shooting took place at Villefranche-sur-Mer and the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, Cannes and Meknes, among other locations, including Zion National Park, Utah. At the time, both Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas only made the sequel because they were contractually obligated to do so, although Douglas was much more invested in the film as its producer. At one point during pre-production, Turner tried to back out of the project because she found the script "terrible, sentimental", until 20th Century Fox threatened her with a $25 million lawsuit for breach of contract. Douglas ensured that a rewrite was made. Turner was disappointed that Douglas did not ask Diane Thomas, the writer who had penned the script for Romancing the Stone, to return for the sequel because he decided her asking price was too high; when Douglas agreed to undertake rewrites to please Turner, Thomas was asked to consult on alterations, but Turner remained disappointed with the script. She elaborated in an interview in 2018: "...ultimately I read the script on a plane to Morocco, where the film was shooting, I was furious.
It didn't have. When I got to the hotel in Fez, Michael and I sat down on the floor with three versions of the script. We were trading pages to get a script, acceptable to both of us, it was,'“I’ll do this if you’ll do that.”' It was frustrating." Turner, Douglas and DeVito would reunite in the unrelated film The War of the Roses. Filming in North Africa was dogged with problems from unbearable 120 degree F heat to problems with the local crew but the most troubling concern was that the director showed that he was not up to the task of helming an action film. After one massive night scene, hours in setup, cast and crew in place, it was only that someone noticed that there was no film in the cameras; as producer, Michael Douglas exploded. More problems with local customs cropped up, with film a
The Man Who Would Be King (film)
The Man Who Would Be King is a 1975 Technicolor adventure film adapted from the Rudyard Kipling novella of the same name. It was adapted and directed by John Huston and starred Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Saeed Jaffrey, Christopher Plummer as Kipling; the film follows two rogue ex-soldiers, former non-commissioned officers in the British Army, who set off from late 19th-century British India in search of adventure and end up in faraway Kafiristan, where one is taken for a god and made their king. In 1885 in India, while working late at night in his newspaper office, the journalist Rudyard Kipling is approached by a ragged crazed derelict who reveals himself to be Peachy Carnehan, an old acquaintance. Carnehan tells Kipling the story of how he and his comrade-in-arms Danny Dravot, ex-sergeants of the British Army who had become adventurers, travelled far beyond India into the remote land of Kafiristan. Three years earlier and Carnehan had met Kipling under less than auspicious circumstances.
After stealing Kipling's pocket-watch, Carnehan found a masonic tag on the chain and, realising he had robbed a fellow Freemason, had to return it. At the time, he and Dravot were working on a plot to blackmail a local rajah, which Kipling foiled by getting the British district commissioner to intervene. In a comic relief turn, Carnehan obliquely blackmails the commissioner in order to avoid deportation. Frustrated at the lack of opportunities for lucrative criminal mischief in an India becoming more civilised and regulated through their own hard efforts as soldiers, with little to look forward to in England except petty jobs, the two turn up at Kipling's office with an audacious plan. Forsaking India, they will head with twenty rifles and ammunition to Kafiristan, a country unknown to Europeans since its conquest by Alexander the Great. There they will offer their services to a ruler and help him to conquer his neighbours, but proceed to overthrow him and loot the country. Kipling, after first trying to dissuade them, gives Dravot his masonic tag as a token of brotherhood.
After signing a contract pledging mutual loyalty and forswearing drink and women, the two set off on an epic overland journey north beyond the Khyber Pass. Over the next few weeks, they travel through Afghanistan, fighting off bandits and avalanches as they make their way into the unknown land of Kafiristan, they chance upon a Gurkha soldier who goes by the name of Billy Fish, the sole survivor of a British expedition who had all died. Speaking English as well as the local tongue, Billy smooths their way as they begin their rise, first offering their services to the chief of a much-raided village; when a force has been trained in up-to-date weapons and tactics, they lead it out against some hated neighbours. During the battle, an arrow pierces Dravot's jacket but he is unharmed. Both sides take him to be a god. Victory follows victory, with the defeated added to the ranks of the swelling army. Nobody is left to stand in their way and they are summoned to the holy city of Sikandergul by the high priest of the region.
He sets up a re-enactment of the arrow incident, to determine whether Dravot is a man or a god by seeing whether or not he bleeds. When his shirt is torn open, they are amazed to see the masonic tag around his neck, it contains the sacred symbol left by Sikander. Hailing Dravot as king as well as god, they show him the royal treasury, full of unimaginable amounts of gold and jewels that are now all his. Carnehan suggests that they leave with as much loot as they can carry as soon as the snows have melted on the mountain passes. Dravot, however, is beginning to enjoy the adulation of the locals, settling their disputes and issuing laws, dreams of visiting Queen Victoria as an equal, he is struck by the beauty of a girl called Roxana, the name of Alexander's wife, cancels their pact to avoid women, saying he will marry her in order to leave the people an heir. When she is reluctantly brought to him, he tries to kiss her, but she, terrified that the touch of a god means death to a mortal, bites his cheek.
Seeing him bleed, the people realise he try to grab the English impostors. Outnumbered in the ensuing battle and captured, Dravot is made to walk onto a rope bridge, where he lustily sings the hymn "The Son of God Goes Forth to War"; when the ropes are cut, he falls thousands of feet to his death. Carnehan is crucified between two pine trees but, on being found still alive next morning, is freed. Crippled in body and unhinged in mind from his ordeal, he made his way back to India as a beggar. Finishing his story, he leaves Kipling's office after putting a bundle on the desk; when Kipling opens it, he finds Dravot's severed head, still wearing a golden crown. Sean Connery as Daniel Dravot Michael Caine as Peachy Carnehan Christopher Plummer as Rudyard Kipling Saeed Jaffrey as Billy Fish Shakira Caine as Roxanne Doghmi Larbi as Ootah Jack May as District Commissioner Karroom Ben Bouih as Kafu Selim Mohammad Shamsi as Babu Albert Moses as Ghulam Paul Antrim as Mulvaney Graham Acres as Officer The Blue Dancers of Goulamine as Dancers The Man Who Would Be King had been a pet project of John Huston's for many years after he had read the book as a child.
Huston had planned to make the film since the 1950s with Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart in the roles of Daniel and Peachy. He was unable to get the project off the ground before Bogart died in 1957. Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas were approached to play the leads, followed by Richard Burton and Peter O'To
The Mummy (1999 film)
The Mummy is a 1999 American action horror film written and directed by Stephen Sommers. The film stars Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Kevin J. O'Connor, with Arnold Vosloo in the titular role as the reanimated mummy, it is a loose remake of the 1932 film The Mummy. In this film, adventurer Rick O'Connell travels to Hamunaptra, the city of the dead, with a librarian and her brother. There, they accidentally awaken Imhotep, a cursed high priest from the reign of the pharaoh Seti I. Filming began in Marrakech, Morocco, on May 4, 1998, lasted seventeen weeks; the visual effects were provided by Industrial Light & Magic, who blended film and computer-generated imagery to create the mummy. Jerry Goldsmith provided the orchestral score; the Mummy opened on May 7, 1999, grossed $43 million in 3,210 theaters during its opening weekend in the United States. The film went on to gross $416 million worldwide; the box-office success led to two sequels—The Mummy Returns and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor—as well as an animated series and the prequel/spin-off film The Scorpion King.
In Thebes, Egypt, 1290 BC, high priest Imhotep has a love affair with Anck-su-Namun, the mistress of Pharaoh Seti I. When the Pharaoh discovers the affair and Anck-su-Namun assassinate him. Imhotep flees, while Anck-su-Namun kills herself, intending for Imhotep to resurrect her. Imhotep and his priests steal her corpse and travel to Hamunaptra, the city of the dead, but the resurrection ritual is stopped by Seti's bodyguards, the Medjai. Imhotep's priests are all mummified alive, while Imhotep himself is sentenced to suffer the Hom Dai, the worst of Egyptian curses. Imhotep is sealed away in a sarcophagus at the feet of a statue of the Egyptian god Anubis and kept under strict surveillance by the Medjai to prevent Imhotep's return. In 1926, Jonathan Carnahan presents his sister, Evelyn, a librarian and aspiring Egyptologist, with an intricate box and map that lead to Hamunaptra. Jonathan reveals he stole the box from an American adventurer, Rick O'Connell, who discovered the city three years earlier while in the French Foreign Legion.
Rick makes a deal with Evelyn to lead them there. Rick leads Evelyn and her party to the city, where the group encounters a band of American treasure hunters guided by Rick's cowardly colleague Beni Gabor; the expeditions are attacked by the Medjai, led by the warrior Ardeth Bay. Against Ardeth's advice to leave the city, the two expeditions continue to excavate. Evelyn searches for the famous Book of the Living, a book made of pure gold. Instead of finding the book, she and Jonathan stumble upon the statue of Anubis and the remains of Imhotep buried underneath; the team of Americans, discover the black Book of the Dead, accompanied by canopic jars carrying Anck-su-Namun's preserved organs. At night, Evelyn reads a page aloud, accidentally awakening Imhotep; the expeditions return to Cairo. Imhotep returns to full strength by killing the members of the American expedition, brings the ten plagues back to Egypt. Seeking a way to stop Imhotep, Rick and Jonathan meet Ardeth at a museum. Ardeth hypothesizes that Imhotep wants to resurrect Anck-su-Namun again and plans to do so by sacrificing Evelyn.
Evelyn believes that if the Book of the Dead brought Imhotep back to life, the Book of the Living can kill him again, deduces the book's whereabouts. Imhotep corners the group with an army of slaves. Evelyn agrees to accompany Imhotep. Imhotep and Beni return to Hamunaptra, pursued by Rick and Ardeth. Imhotep prepares to sacrifice Evelyn, but she is rescued after an intense battle with Imhotep's mummified priests; when Evelyn reads from the Book of Amun-Ra, Imhotep becomes mortal again, Rick forces him into the River of Death. Imhotep not before vowing revenge. While looting treasure from the pyramid, Beni accidentally sets off an ancient booby trap and is trapped by a swarm of flesh-eating scarabs as Hamunaptra collapses into the sand. Ardeth rides away as Rick and Evelyn kiss and ride off into the sunset on a pair of camels laden with Beni's treasure. Brendan Fraser plays an American adventurer who served in the French Foreign Legion. Producer James Jacks offered the role of Rick O'Connell to Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, but the actors were not interested or could not fit the role into their respective schedules.
Jacks and director Stephen Sommers were impressed with the money that George of the Jungle was making at the box office and cast Brendan Fraser as a result. The actor understood that his character "doesn't take himself too otherwise the audience can't go on that journey with him". Rachel Weisz portrays a clumsy but brilliant Egyptologist. Evelyn undertakes the expedition to Hamunaptra to discover an ancient book, proving herself to her peers; the character was named in tribute to Lady Evelyn Carnarvon, the daughter of amateur Egyptologist Lord Carnarvon, both present at the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922. Rachel Weisz did not see this film as such; as she said in an interview, "It's hokum, a comic book world."South African stage actor Arnold Vosloo plays Imhotep. Vosloo understood the approach that Sommers was going for in his screenplay, but only agreed to take on the role of Imhotep "i
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