The Mummy

Genre: Horror/Drama. 

Studio: Twentieth Century Fox. 
Production Company: Lightstorm Productions. 

Project Phase: Development Hell. 

Who's In It: Unknown. See Rumors. 
Who's Making It: Steven Katz (Screenwriter); based upon the Anne
Rice novel The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned. 

Premise: An Egyptian ruler returns to the realm of the living. 

Release Date: Unknown. 

Comments: In the wake of the success with the first installment of The
Vampire Chronicles Rice's other macabre tales are being considered
for development. With her take on the folklore of mummies combined
with her passion for Egyptology (and add a sizable dash of the word
'preternatural' sprinkled throughout the story), the studio is hoping that
the audience will also go to see another fashionable ghoul lament about
life, death and undeath. 

Rumors: Spring, 1996... The star name being tossed around by Rice as
the ideal Ramses is none other than Antonio Banderas. The thing is, we
can see it too - we're just wondering how all his hair is going to fit under
those bandages.

Scoop Feedback:

May 5, 1996... Wired's April 1996 interview with James Cameron
revealed that Lightstorm has aquired the rights to the Rice novel. The
project is in development. [Scoop reported by 'Shape'.]

May 9, 1996... 20th Century Fox closed the door to rights for Rice's
The Mummy book, settling on a figure that was slightly less than $3
million. A bidding war grew between a few development houses, but
Fox bid almost $1 million more to lock the deal. [Scoop mailed in by
'Shape'; originally reported by Variety.]

November 30, 1996... Anne Rice's Internet newsletter, Commotion
Strange, reports that Banderas will not be cast in the film. [Scoop sent
in by 'Moonbeast'.]

February 6, 1997... James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment has
hired Steven Katz to adapt Anne Rice's The Mummy, or Ramses the
Damned for the silver screen. [Scoop sent in by Christian and Greg
Dean Schmitz.]

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