Download Link For Mummy 3 Set Video

You can now download, or just play, a Flash video from the set of The Mummy 3.

Movie Minesweeper - The Private And Confidential Edition

I'm listening to Higher Ground by Stevie Wonder as I begin today. Nice. Makes a nice change from Horse It Into Ya Cynthia, which was the last thing I listened to. Sheesh.

- Phantasm V is moving forwad, it seems. Bubba Nosferatu? Not so much.

- Some rumours are making Indiana Jones IV sound rather too like The Mummy III for most people's comfort. I'm not buying it.

- The Man of Steel's producers think Superman will be going before the cameras ahead of Harvey Milk. If this means The Mayor of Castor Street never gets made, I'm not going to be happy.

- Rupert Friend has been cast as Prince Albert.

- Aidan Quinn and his director sister Marian are to premiere their new film 32A at the Glaway Fleadh next weekend.

- A Lucky Luciano biopic is on the cards. Yawn.

- Claudia Karvan has taken the female lead role in Daybreakers.

- Fox have pulled the remaining episodes of Drive from the schedules. Again. All the better to bury it, dance on the grave and laught at Tim Minear while he sits sobbing. Villains.

- Pixar's Jeff Pidgeon has been lurking down at the Kwik-E-Mart.

- ABC are holding the rights to screen piles of movies they just don't want to screen - but they've already paid. Why are movies such a turn off on American Network TV, I wonder?

This update included a couple of links that I'd overlooked in the last few Minesweepers. Now we're back to straight.
And I'm not listening to any music at all.

Mummy Money

As previously reported here - months ago - Rachel Weisz will not be returning to the Mummy franchise in part 3. And not as previously reported here, Brendan Fraser will be.

Essentially, both Fraser and Weisz found the script rather lacklustre. Fraser was eventually seduced, however, by an incredibly lucrative deal - and Weisz may well have been too, had she been offered one. The glass ceiling is alive and well in Hollywood, and Rachel Weisz's nose is smuched against the glass.

Rob Cohen is directing, and he's hardly either visionary or consummate technician. This is likely to be quite a terrible film.

Some Indy Facts

Here are two Indiana Jones facts for you.

Firstly, it is Indiana Jones and the City of Gods. Definitely. This was the title of an older script, not the new one - but it is going to be used as the title of the film, in place of the title on the front page of the new script. Not sure why, but it is apparently 100% true,

Secondly, Shia LaBeouf is in. For sure. No idea why he's been rocking the boat, but he's in.

[EDIT: And now I'm hearing that Gong Li is in. Quieter voices have suggested Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington too, but the boys don't seem to check out at all]

I received a tip-off about the title and LaBeouf facts together, and have been able to confirm each separately. All three folk involved really would know too. So I'm confident, and happy to take it to the bank. I'm happy for you to remember me getting so loud and clear on this one, prepared to risk the egg on my face because, frankly, I don't doubt either of these facts at all.

[EDIT: A pretty good source has now suggested that Teotihuacan is involved. Does that clear anything up for any of us?]

[EDIT: Hollywood Elsewhere are also positing the involvement of Gong Li. Interesting]

[EDIT: Okay, got to the bottom of the Gong Li mystery. The idea was first posited on a Gong Li messageboard and picked up by a few folk. One of them mailed me, another one of them was Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere. No matter what he says, this seems to be the origin of his info - I don't believe he read the article he mentions at all.

The messageboard have been rumouring Gong Li's involvement for two years, but a lot has changed in the Indy camp since then.

Truthfully? She's (at least in talks) to star in The Mummy 3. I feel sincerely stupid for not noticing this earlier, but it has been pointed out to me - very kindly - and it was suddenly so obvious. She really is likely for the third Mummy film - even while Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz aren't]

Fraser 3D Is A New Milestone

I love the Real D process. Very much. Indeed, the 3D version of Meet the Robinsons is one of my most eagerly anticipated releases of the year.

Next year, Eric Brevig's Journey 3D is to become the first live action film to be released in the format. Sign me up. One day, when my kids find 2D films antiquated and unappealing, and I myself consider at least new 2D films to be conceited in their disregard for my second eye/the third dimension, I'll enjoy remembering the beginnings of Real D.

In the new film, Brendan Fraser is to star as a geologist who with his teenage son and teenage son's teenage friends (it's a family film, then) follows the path Jules Verne took on his journey to the centre of the world. It's another one of those metatextual ploys, such as in Brothers Grimm, in which famous fictions are treated as or blended with history - something I have a weakness for, I must admit (and indeed, I have my own killer take on this subgenre safe and snug up my sleeve).

We also know, thanks to Variety, that Eric Brevig is directing and the script is by D. V. DeVincentis, one of the many Grosse Point Blank scribes, so nothing really off-putting has been announced about this project so far. Good.

We're still waiting for the official announcement that Brendan Fraser will not be returning for the third Mummy, but Journey 3D seems to be shaping as an easily superior replacement.

Fraser And Weisz Snubbing Third Mummy

I haven't been keeping up on the projected third Mummy film, so excuse me if this is old news, but I've had it confirmed for me this morning that neither Brendan Fraser or Rachel Weisz will be appearing - at all - in Rob Cohen's upcoming snorefest. A source near the film dropped me a line directly and as I've been skimming Mummy news at best, it certainly seemed to be a bit of new news, and I thought you'd like it.

Apparently, neither Fraser nor Weisz liked the script at all and didn't find it at all hard to root out better projects to do. I mean, there's always wet paint somewhere and hair washing, if done properly, can provide a fully engaging experience. Suffice to say, they have now definitively walked away, brushing their hands clean.

The film will now centre on their characters' son - which was, I think, common knowledge already. It's going to be set in the East too, right? A few bits and bobs have been sinking in.

At this stage, nothing about the project makes it sound any better or worse than the previous two installments. Frankly, I always preferred the kitsch panto of the The Scorpion King spin off anyway.