The Mummy (franchise)

The Mummy
Directed by	The Mummy and The Mummy Returns Stephen Sommers The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Rob Cohen
Produced by	Sean Daniel James Jacks
Screenplay by	Stephen Sommers Alfred Gough Miles Millar
Starring	List of characters in The Mummy series
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith Alan Silvestri Randy Edelman
Editing by	Bob Ducsay Ray Bushey III Kelly Matsumoto Joel Negron
Studio	Universal Pictures Relativity Media The Sommers Company Alphaville Films
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	1999-2008
Running time	366 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English Arabic Ancient Egyptian
Budget	$323 million
Box office	$1,415,408,499

The Mummy is any one of three series of adventure films about an ancient Egyptian priest accidentally resurrected, who brings with him a powerful curse, and the efforts of heroic archeologists to stop him.

Universal Horror Films

The original series of six installments, starring iconic horror actors Boris Karloff (in the original only) and Lon Chaney Jr., were produced for Universal Studios from 1932 to 1955.

• The Mummy, 1932. The movie features the story of an ancient Egyptian priest mummy called Imhotep (Karloff), who is resurrected in the present day.
• The Mummy's Hand, 1940. Not a direct sequel to the 1932 film, only the resurrected mummy theme is the same. This film features Kharis (played by Tom Tyler), another Egyptian priest turned living dead mummy. Some flashbacks, using scenes from the original film, feature Karloff.
• The Mummy's Tomb, 1942. Direct sequel to the 1940 film. Tom Tyler is replaced by Lon Chaney, Jr. in this and the next two films. Tyler, however, still plays Kharis in flashbacks to Ancient Egypt.
• The Mummy's Ghost, 1944. Direct sequel to the 1942 film
• The Mummy's Curse, 1944. Direct sequel to the first 1944 film

• Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy, 1955. Indirect sequel/spoof of the first five films. According to the Universal Horror tie-in novel Return of the Wolf Man, Klaris, the mummy in this film, was a cousin of Kharis, the mummy from the previous four films.

Hammer Horror Films

In 1959 the British Hammer Film Productions began its own Mummy series.

• The Mummy, 1959. Set in 1895, the film stars Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee as Kharis. The plot is based on Universal's The Mummy's Hand and The Mummy's Tomb.
• The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, 1964. Features Dickie Owen as the Mummy Ra-Antef.
• The Mummy's Shroud, 1966. Features Eddie Powell as the Mummy Prem.
• Blood from the Mummy's Tomb, 1971. Based on Bram Stoker's 1903 novel The Jewel of Seven Stars. Features Valerie Leon as the Mummy Queen Tera and her reincarnation Margaret Fuchs.

New Mummy Series (1999-2008)

Originally a proposed remake of The Mummy would have been directed by horror filmmaker/writer Clive Barker. Barker’s vision for the film was violent, with the story revolving around the head of a contemporary art museum who turns out to be a cultist trying to reanimate mummies. Barker's take was "dark, sexual and filled with mysticism", and that, "it would have been a great low-budget movie".

In 1999, Stephen Sommers wrote and directed a remake of The Mummy, loosely based on the original film of 1932. This film switches genres from the emphasis on horror to adventure, concentrating more on action sequences and effects, and a higher element of Egyptian lore. The film became a box office success spawning two sequels and an up coming fourth film, a spin-off series, and an animated television series.

• The Mummy, 1999. It is the year 1925 and Richard “Rick” O'Connell, an american explorer, has discovered Hamunaptra, the city of the dead. Three years later, O'Connell returns to the site with a beautiful librarian, Evelyn 'Evie' Carnahan and her brother, Johnathan. When Evie accidentally revives the mummified corpse of an Egyptian priest, Imhotep, the pair must find a way to kill him before he rises back into power and destroys the world.
• The Mummy Returns, 2001. It is the year 1933 and Rick O'Connell and Evelyn Carnahan are married with an 8 year-old son, Alex. When Alex triggers a curse and Imhotep is resurrected, Rick and Evie must once again try to save the world and defeat the mummy.
• The Mummy: The Animated Series. Produced for Universal Animation Studios to capitalize the success of the first two Sommers movies. It lasted two seasons, from 2001 to 2003, with a low budget.
• The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, 2008. Set in 1946, the movie continues the adventures of Rick O'Connell, his wife Evie, and his son Alex against a different mummy, the Dragon Emperor (Jet Li) of China.

The Mummy Sequel Trilogy

Tomb of the Dragon Emperor actress Maria Bello stated that another Mummy film will "absolutely" be made, and that she has already signed on. Actor Luke Ford is signed on for three more films.

Cast and characters

Main article: List of characters in The Mummy series

Character	Film
	The Mummy	The Mummy Returns	The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Rick O'Connell	Brendan Fraser
Evelyn Carnahan-O'Connell / Princess Nefertiri	Rachel Weisz		Maria Bello
Jonathan Carnahan	John Hannah
Imhotep	Arnold Vosloo
Beni Gabor	Kevin J. O'Connor
Egyptologist	Jonathan Hyde
Ardeth Bay	Oded Fehr
Curator	Erick Avari
Henderson	Stephen Dunham
Daniels	Corey Johnson
Burns	Tuc Watkins
Warden	Omid Djalili
Pharaoh Seti I	Aharon Ipale
Winston Havelock	Bernard Fox
Meela Nais / Anck-su-namun	Patricia Velásquez
Alex O'Connell		Freddie Boath	Luke Ford
Baltus Hafez		Alum Armstrong
The Scorpion King		Dwayne Johnson
Lock-Nah		Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Izzy		Shaun Parkes
Red		Bruce Byron
Jacques		Joe Dixon
Spivey		Tom Fisher
Emperor Han			Jet Li
General Yang			Anthony Wang
Lin			Isabella Leong
Maguire			Liam Cunningham
Roger Wilson			David Calder
Ming Guo			Russell Wong
Zi-Yuan			Michelle Yeoh

Other media

The entrance to Revenge of the Mummy at Universal Studios Hollywood

Two video game adaptations of The Mummy (1999) were published in 2000: an action-adventure game for the PlayStation and PC, as well as a Game Boy Color puzzle game. Mummy Returns and Tomb of the Dragon Emperor were also made into games.

In May 2001, Chaos! Comics released the first of a three issue series inspired by the film, titled 'The Mummy Valley of the Gods'. The plot was supposed to take place between the first film and "The Mummy Returns". Rick and Evelyn are on their honeymoon in Egypt and end up embarking on yet another adventure where they must unravel the mysteries of the Orb of Destiny and discover the location of the Valley of the Gods hidden beneath the sands. However, the second and third issues were never published. This was most likely due to Chaos later filing bankruptcy in 2002 and selling the rights to all their titles at that time. Years later in 2008, another Mummy comic series was released by IDW Publishing, spanning four issues. This series was titled 'The Mummy: the Rise and Fall of Xango's Ax'. Unlike the preceding comic series, all of the planned issues were published.

The film also inspired a roller coaster, Revenge of the Mummy in Universal Studios Theme Parks, Florida. Another is in Hollywood.