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A Film About Ancient Egypt

All Acting Regiment

13:39 / 04.09.05

Ancient Egypt seems like a great source for films- unfortunately it seems to have been milked so much that cliche rides supreme. If there was a new film coming out about ancient Egypt, what would you want to see in it and why?

The To'krah.

Help us out there, Haus! Is that the book of the dead or Osiris's phallus?

Withiel: DALI'S ROTTWEILER

19:50 / 04.09.05

Neither. As far as I know, crap rebel Go'auld aliens from Stargate SG-1, the series where all the aliens mysteriously speak English and live on planets which have large tracts closely resembling the woodlands of North America, specifically those around the studios where the series was filmed.

I'd really like to see some proper elucidation* of Ancient Egyptian culture, perhaps vaguely similar to that in the "novels" of Christian Jacq. (note, I don't necessarily believe that these are either accurate or indeed any good, but I do think his almost Utopian take on Egyptian culture would be at least interesting to see on screen). Also, Big Rituals with processions and crocodiles and things. And no mummies. At all.

*I have a feeling this word does not mean what I think it means.

Catjerome

00:03 / 05.09.05

I'd like to see some material about not-quite-as-ancient Egypt when the Greeks and later the Romans were in charge. Bob Brier's *Great Egyptians* miniseries had an episode about Cleopatra that highlighted a bit of cultural mishmash - carved reliefs of Egyptian gods like Anubis looking all hardbodied and three-dimensional in contrast to the typical flat Egyptian tomb paintings. I bet that historical period could provide a lot of intriguing and political stories.

07:13 / 05.09.05

I'd like to see it be about the end Hyksos period.

Come on, two brothers, Egyptian kings in exile, one of them a bare teenager, fighting to take back over their homeland. How much harder would you need to work to make that cool? And besides, we know so little about the Hyksos that you could do almost any old shit with a sketchy historical justification and still be within a stone's throw of what might actually have happened.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

07:26 / 05.09.05

Crocodiles. And a soundtrack by Nile.

08:54 / 06.09.05

I would like it to feature hunky Brendan Fraser. And wrestling superstar the Rock. And that guy from Sliding Doors and Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Lord Morgue

09:15 / 06.09.05

http://www.bmoviecomic.com/

Sjaak at the Shoe Shop

12:34 / 06.09.05

Not really ancient Ancient Egypt, but I would like to see some intrigue and suspense in Alexandria against the background of the Punic wars.

Spies from Rome And Carthage both trying to get the upperhand, clash between Punic trade mentality and Roman militancy, some good old swashbuckling, and an impression of the city Alexandria must have been in those days.

Mourne Kransky

17:43 / 06.09.05

Not a film, proper, perhaps but I saw the wee 3-D film about the Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner at work on the mummy of Nesperennub. The mummy bits were OK but what was great (apart from the gorgeous half-naked Priests of Amun) was the CGI reconstruction of the Great Temple of Amun Ra at Karnak. It was marvellous to see it intact and full of the colour long lost from the walls and carvings.

Story was crap though. He was a Priest / he died /millennia later people had a virtual poke about inside him. No McGuffin.

ghadis

23:58 / 06.09.05

Yea the 3D film at the BM was great fun (Of course being able to wear crappy 3D glasses for any film is great fun) The mummy bits i loved. Zooming through the body was wonderful. I loved the bowl being stuck to his head out of the forgetfulness and panic of the embalmers. Like Xoc said, the CGI Temple was great (sexy Priests! I'm thinking of moving). And it was amazing coming out to be confronted by the real thing.

As to what would make a good film i think Rameses 2nd and his battle against the Hittites at Kadesh would be ripe for a good film treatment. Also the life of the female Pharaoh Hatshepsut. Plenty of material in those two Pharaohs to make films and films and films!

And i agree with Stoaties suggestion of crocodiles and a Nile soundtrack!

But crocodiles fighting hippos!

Blue Hippos!!!

ghadis

00:11 / 07.09.05

On this note, though, i do want to recommend Pharaoh made by the Polish director Jerzy Kawalerowicz in the 60s. It's pretty fucking great.

ghadis

00:21 / 07.09.05

Better link to the film Pharaoh

Oh,and Xoc, if you like the greased up bald headed Priests at the British Museum, check out these guys and their chariots!! Yum!

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