Trivia: Director Stephen Sommers has said that part of the reason he wanted to work on this film was because the original 1932 version of the movie was the only classic Universal monster movie to scare him as a child. He thought Dracula was a little too sexy and cool to be totally scary, while Frankenstein was more tragic and sad than frightening... whereas he found the original mummy just plain old creepy.
TedStixon
17th Nov 2023
The Mummy (1999)
17th Nov 2023
The Mummy (1999)
Trivia: One of the background extras in the film was unknowingly given the exact same cloak worn by Alec Guinness in the original "Star Wars." It had inadvertently been mixed in with various generic monk robes at a costume company that works on film and television productions, and was later rented out to this film. It was identified a few years later as the "Star Wars" robe and sold in an auction for over $100,000, making "The Mummy" its last confirmed on-screen appearance.
31st Oct 2020
The Mummy (1999)
31st Oct 2020
The Mummy (1999)
Trivia: Tom Cruise was reportedly offered the role of Rick O'Connell, but turned it down. He would later go on to star in the 2017 reboot eighteen years later.
31st Oct 2020
The Mummy (1999)
8th Jan 2020
The Mummy (1999)
Trivia: Somewhat ironically, the mummy's actor Arnold Vosloo really didn't like the look of the CGI mummy when he is first awakened. He felt the design was a little hokey and over-the-top. (Although he did like the look of the later "stages" the mummy takes on as he begins to regenerate).
4th Jan 2020
The Mummy (1999)
Trivia: Much about the character Ardeth Bay was changed during filming. For example: Originally, he was meant to be tattooed head-to-toe. But director Stephen Sommers opted to only give him a few tattoos, feeling actor Oded Fehr was too handsome to cover in ink. He was also meant to die in the final battle, but Sommers fell in love with the character and decided to let him live.
4th Jan 2020
The Mummy (1999)
Trivia: Reportedly, for some reason all of the camels inexplicably hated Kevin J. O'Connor, and wouldn't cooperate with his commands. The rather humorous scene of his character Beni trying to drag a camel who won't budge was a result of this.
4th Jan 2020
The Mummy (1999)
4th Jan 2020
The Mummy (1999)
Trivia: Arnold Vosloo actually had to be wrapped head-to-toe in bandages for his mummification scene. He found it incredibly distressing, and even joked in the commentary that the scene made him realise that "bondage isn't [his] thing."
4th Jan 2020
The Mummy (1999)
Trivia: The opening voice over was meant to be darker in tone and be provided by the titular mummy, Imhotep, as he recounts his curse. However, it was decided that it was simply too weird to hear his voice narrating in English when he obviously wouldn't speak it. The voice-over was then given to Ardeth Bay.
4th Jan 2020
The Mummy (1999)
2nd Jul 2018
The Mummy (1999)
Trivia: Prior to director Stephen Sommers becoming attached to the film, Universal had tried for a number of years to make a new "Mummy" movie. At one point, renowned horror author and filmmaker Clive Barker was even attached, and was going to write and direct a low-budget, hard-R "Mummy" movie, but he eventually walked away. Subsequently, filmmakers including Joe Dante and George A. Romero became attached at different points. Finally, Sommers pitched his vision - a cross between Indiana Jones and Jason and the Argnonauts, with a new flashier Mummy created with modern-day effects - which the producers loved.
2nd Jul 2018
The Mummy (1999)
2nd Jul 2018
The Mummy (1999)
Trivia: Almost all of the muzzle-flashes in the film were digitally added, for two specific reasons. The first being that sometimes muzzle-flashes simply don't show up on film. And second, due to the environment in which the film was made, sand would constantly jam-up the guns the production was using, often in the middle of a shot.
2nd Jul 2018
The Mummy (1999)
Trivia: In one scene, Beni is holding his hat, revealing a rather bad haircut underneath. The actor, Kevin J. O'Connor had just gotten a haircut, but the barber accidentally botched it, leaving him with an unfortunate short, ratty hairstyle. O'Connor thought it looked hilarious and asked to shoot one scene where he had his hat off as a gag. Director Sommers obliged, but as a joke tried to claim in the commentary track that O'Connor really liked the bad haircut and wanted to show it off because he thought it looked cool.
2nd Jul 2018
The Mummy (1999)
Trivia: When the prison warden is being killed by the scarab, during filming, the actor for some reason chose not to wear any underwear, and because he was moving so much, his private-bits kept "falling out" of his pants during takes. The editor had to cut around the unintentional nudity as much as he could. Unfortunately, if you chose to go through the scene frame-by-frame, you can indeed catch about two-frames of footage featuring some of the nudity that got overlooked somehow. Evidently, the MPAA didn't catch it, so the film got to keep its PG-13 rating.
2nd Jul 2018
The Mummy (1999)
Trivia: The soldier-mummies were not in the original script. Instead, Jonathan would accidentally bring to life a giant statue. It was cut for the enormous cost the computer effects for the statue would have incurred, and replaced with the soldier-mummies, since they could be accomplished mainly with old-school suit effects mixed with only minimal CG for specific shots.
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