Saturday Trivia

The Mummy Official Blog
Rob Cohen

The third in the Mummy saga has moved away from Egypt this time, relocating to China. For those interested in following the lead up to the movie, see director Rob Cohen's official blog:

Today concludes our seventh week of shooting out of a scheduled eighteen. I’m in a set we call “the ruins” which is the destroyed foundation of a farm settlement in a Himalayan mountain pass shooting three distinct love scenes: Brendan and Maria, Luke and Isabella, and John Hannah and a yak called Geraldine (not really a love scene, only kidding.) The wind and snow are pummeling the set and it looks cold, very cold but the illusion is ruined when the clapstick guy marks the shot in a T-shirt. It’s an effective illusion, but all Hollywood films are an illusion.

Death on The Nile game sells 10 million copies
Business Times Online

Agatha Christie has found a new lease of life as a video game heroine, with the “Queen of crime novelists” holding her own alongside sector stalwarts Lara Croft and Princess Zelda.

Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile, released as an internet download, has become one of the top ten games played on personal computers, the most popular platform for video games, figures released today show.

The title, based on the 1937 book in which Hercule Poirot unravels a murder onboard an Egyptian river cruise, has been downloaded 10 million times since April.

Mini Abu Simbel sculpted from sand
Richmond.com

Two-time world champion in sand sculpting, Karen Fralich, has made a miniature version of Abu Simbel, using 25 tons of sand, for the Science Museum of Virginia (SMV) to launch a series of Egypt-themed activities. There's a picture of the model on the above page. The SMV home page is at: www.smv.org.

Young Cleopatra begins shoot
Screen Daily

UK film, TV and theatre company Stagescreen Productions begins shooting The Young Cleopatra, the first in a series of historical features, in Egypt on November 4.

The shoot will take place at the Egyptian Media Production City (EMPC), a partner in the project, and on locations in Alexandria and around the Nile.

The $3m film, billed as the story of how " young Cleopatra, Princess of Egypt, fights for her life, discovers love, and emerges as a goddess", is directed by Richard Platt. DoP Ken Brinsly will work with a largely Egyptian crew.

The EMPC has sales rights for the Arab world, and a 25% share in world rights outside the UK and Australia.

"We could shoot anything in Egypt," said Stagescreen founder and producer Jeffrey Taylor, who is now casting in London for the lead roles. "If you're looking for exotic locations, it's the place, and it's inexpensive."

See the above for more.