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Movie producer James "Jim" Jacks, who worked with independent-minded filmmakers including the Coen brothers, Richard Linklater, Sam Raimi and Billy Bob Thornton, died Monday of a heart attack at ...
Jan 21, 2014 · James Jacks, the veteran producer who helped make “The Mummy” franchise a worldwide box office smash, died Monday, his one-time producing partner Sean Daniel said on Facebook. He was 66.
James Jacks was born on 29 December 1947 in the USA. He was a producer and executive, known for The Mummy (1999), The Jackal (1997) and The Hunted (2003). He died on 20 January 2014 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- December 29, 1947
- January 20, 2014
- Overview
- Synopsis
- Cast
- Trivia
- Appearances
The Mummy is an adventure film released by Universal Pictures on May 7, 1999. Starring actors Brendan Fraser as Rick O'Connell, Rachel Weisz as Evelyn Carnahan, John Hannah as Jonathan Carnahan, Arnold Vosloo as Imhotep, and Oded Fehr as Ardeth Bay, the film was written and directed by Stephen Sommers, and produced by Sean Daniel and James Jacks.
The film was based loosely on a 1932 film of the same name which starred Boris Karloff, intended originally as part of a low-budget film series, turning into a blockbuster adventure film. The story is commenced in the year 1290 B.C, and continues into the 1920’s.
Ancient Egypt
In the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes, in the year 1290 B.C, Seti I rules as pharaoh. Residing in Thebes is also the High Priest of Osiris, Imhotep, who acts as advisor, counsel and friend to Seti, but who houses a secret: Imhotep harbours a secret love, Anck-Su-Namun, Seti's mistress. The two love one another more than life itself, but as long as Seti lives, they may never be together, leaving them with the plan of assassinating the pharaoh. As a precaution to ensure that Anck-Su-Namun stayed within Seti's rule, she is painted in several coats of golden body paint, which ensures that no other man might touch her, though the precaution is thrown out when Anck-Su-Namun comes close to Imhotep as the two are in Anck-Su-Namun's residence and the they share a kiss, which ends in Imhotep smearing the paint on Anck-Su-Namun's left arm. At that moment, Seti, who has just come to Anck-Su-Namun's residence, is surprised to see Imhotep's priests at the residence, but is utterly infuriated when he sees Anck-Su-Namun with the paint on her arm smeared and Seti asks which man dared to touch her. At that moment, Imhotep comes from behind the pharaoh and is about to assassinate Seti with a dagger, but ceases as Anck-Su-Namun stabs Seti with another dagger, her lover joining in until Seti is killed. The Medjai, the pharaoh's elite guard, storm the residence, seeking whoever had committed the crime. The Medjai were too late to catch one of the real culprits as Imhotep leaves the scene at the request of Anck-Su-Namun, who states that only he could bring her back to life were something to happen. Upon discovering Seti's corpse and Anck-Su-Namun with a dagger, the guards watch as Anck-Su-Namun, feigning treachery, stabs herself in the stomach with the dagger used to murder Seti. Soon after Anck-Su-Namun's burial, Imhotep and his priests unearth her body and race into the deserts to seek Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead, where the wealth of kings and the resting place for pharaohs lays. Here Imhotep seekes out the black Book of the Dead so as to revive his love, and begins to perform the spell that would bring her to life. But before the ritual can be completed, the Medjai, who had followed the priests as they headed to Hamanaptra, storm the chamber where the ritual is being performed. To commit an act such as bringing one back from the dead is blasphemy of the worst calibre, and so the priests are all condemned to death by being mummified while they were alive. Imhotep, having led them into their sin, is condemned to endure the Hom-Dai, a curse so horrible that it had never before been bestowed. The priest's tongue is ritualistically cut out, and he is bound tight in wrappings, placed in a sarcophagus which is filled with flesh-eating scarab beetles. As the scarabs slowly eat Imhotep alive, the lid is placed over the sarcophagus and sealed with a key resembling a puzzle-box. The Medjai and their descendants vow from that time on to watch over the city's ruins so that none might find either Imhotep or the means to bring him back to life, for if he should be revived, all mankind would be doomed.
Battle at Hamunaptra
In 1923 A.D, years after the pharaohs of Egypt had fallen, the Medjai still exist, becoming a furtive secret society over the years with the same goal as they did centuries ago: to ensure that none finds the buried Imhotep. One group of Medjai led by Ardeth Bay stand vigil over Hamunaptra, witnessing a garrison of the French Foreign Legion that have found the ruins, setting up their post within the crumbling walls. The Legionnaires in the garrison believed so much that Hamunaptra existed that they trekked across Libya into Egypt, and encountering a great army of Tuareg warriors at the site. Rick O'Connell, an American serving as corporal in the Legion, has been promoted once the leader of the garrison, Colonel Guizot, deserts the ruins on horseback, leaving his men on their own. O'Connell leads his fellow Legionnaires into successfully bringing down many Tuaregs, but as the battle wages on, the Tuaregs kill off more and more Legionnaires until only O'Connell himself and another Legionnaire, a man named Beni Gabor, survive. O'Connell blasts away many Tuaregs with his pistols, but finds himself outnumbered once his bullets run out. The Tuaregs chase him into a corner, but can't fire, as their horses are frightened off by something within the sand; with this, the Tuaregs leave Hamunaptra, leaving O'Connell alone to face whatever is in the sand, until the movements in the sand drive him off as well. Running off into the desert, O'Connell notices a group of men on horseback watching him in the distance, Medjai, who decide not to kill him, as the desert would do that.
Artifacts
Three years after the battle at Hamunaptra, in the Cairo Museum of Antiquities, a young aspiring Egyptologist by the name of Evelyn Carnahan is given an artifact by her brother Jonathan Carnahan; the object is similar to a puzzle-box and clicks open to reveal eight different-shaped edges and a map made of papyrus. Evelyn and her brother show the item to the museum curator, Dr. Terence Bey, who dismisses the box and the map inside as nothing more than fakes. Upon examining the box, however, the three scholars learn that the box was actually the key to Hamunaptra, and that the map within must be real. The curator idly holds the map for a moment and inadvertently brushes the paper against a small candle on his desk. The map half-destroyed, the curator states that it was for the best, as men had sought after Hamunaptra for many years, and none had ever found it, with most never returning. Evelyn, however, is not as quick to defeat, and has her brother take her to the previous owner of the map: a former French Foreign Legion corporal named Rick O'Connell who had been pick-pocketed by Jonathan for the box, with the former officer being incarcerated in Cairo prison. Evelyn meets the man with interest, as he had been to the City of the Dead and come back alive, and although O'Connell is brash and impudent, he agrees to tell Evelyn how to reach the ruins, provided he is set free, sealing his words with a kiss. After a monetary debate with the warden of the prison, Gad Hassan, O'Connell is set free, so as to lead an expedition with the Carnahans to find the City of the Dead. Once at Giza Port, O'Connell meets with the Carnahan siblings and boards a riverboat with them that would take them all to the next point in their travels; this expedition joined by Warden Hassan, who demands to come along so as to protect his investment.
•Brendan Fraser … Richard O'Connell
•Rachel Weisz … Evelyn Carnahan
•John Hannah … Jonathan Carnahan
•Arnold Vosloo … Imhotep
•Kevin J. O'Connor … Beni Gabor
•Oded Fehr … Ardeth Bay
•In the hanging scene at the Cairo Prison, Brendan Fraser really is struggling to breathe, and is actually being hanged. While shooting the scene, the actor blacked out from the tight rope, and nearly died if not for the medics that came to his aid.
•Joe Dante was originally attached to direct, and some of his ideas survived in the final movie, such as the scarab beetles.
•Arnold Vosloo only agreed to the part of Imhotep if he could “play him absolutely straight.”
•The role of Rick O’Connell had originally been offered to stars Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. None were either available or had no desire to accept the role.
•The Ancient Egyptian dialogue in the first two Mummy films were "reconstructed" by Egyptologist Stuart Tyson Smith, who did the same for the science-fiction film Stargate. It is unknown how to speak and properly pronounce Egyptian dialect, since vowels were not written into hieroglyphics.
•The antique biplane (supposedly a De Havilland DH 82 Tiger Moth) used for this film during the sandstorm sequence is the same that was used by Indiana Jones and his father Henry Jones Sr. to escape a Nazi dirigible in the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Mentioned Characters
•Ramses (Mentioned only) •Abdul (Mentioned only) •Mohammed (Mentioned only) •Bob (Mentioned only) •Howard Carnahan (Mentioned only) •Evelyn Carnahan's mother (Mentioned only) •God (Mentioned only) •Horus (Mentioned only)
Creatures
•Cleo •scarab •horse •camel •donkey •rat •dog •frog (Mentioned only) •fly •locust •pigeon
Locations
•Egypt •Cairo •Fort Brydon •Cairo prison •Cairo Museum of Antiquities •Alexandria (First mentioned) •Libya •Nile •Giza •Sahara •Hamunaptra •Thebes
James Jacks (December 29th, 1947 - January 20th, 2014) was an American film producer. Jacks was the executive producer of The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, The Scorpion King, The Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior, and The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption...
Jan 21, 2014 · Movie producer James “Jim” Jacks, who worked with independent-minded filmmakers including the Coen brothers, Richard Linklater, Sam Raimi and Billy Bob Thornton, died Monday of a heart attack ...
Jan 20, 2014 · James Jacks Biography. James "Jim" Jacks (December 29, 1947 – January 20, 2014) was an American film producer of several blockbuster films and was also known for cultivating visionary independent film auteurs, having produced the first Hollywood films of Richard Linklater, Joel and Ethan Coen (the Coen Brothers), and Kevin Smith.
