Hey folks, Harry here... Has everyone seen the teaser scenes on THE MUMMY RETURNS dvd from THE SCORPION KING? First, I have a little more confidence in Dwayne after watching him on the disc, but I'm by no means convinced that he can carry a whole film... I HOPE HE CAN! Personally, I hope he plays KON aka Conan's Son in KING CONAN as he needs to be ushered into the public's conciousness as a theatrical actor... not thrown to the wolves before he's ready... And I hope he's ready, because THE SCORPION KING is going to have plenty of wolves waiting for it. And after a certain film debuts this Christmas, they're going to need to do a lot of beefing up methinks...
i worked on the second unit of scorpion king. i just ran into the _____________ from Scorpion King while he was dayplaying on _________ which I'm working on. he told me that he is about to start prepping for three weeks and about 4 million bucks worth of reshoots, mostly to be shot in the buttercup valley sand dunes of yuma arizona. i don't know how much a _______ would be privy to why the studio feels this is needed. our speculation, having read the script and done about 40 days of work on it, was that they will be beefing up the battles.
Conan Lite really is a good description. this movie is very different from the Mummy films. almost no CGI. the effects are just to help put you in the setting of 3000BC. sort of like gladiator, or even Crouching Tiger, just some embellished establishing shots. there are a few exceptions, but there are certainly no CGI monsters.
we spent about a week in Yuma during principal photography, with both units filming within a few dunes of each other. we mostly worked on a chase that culminates in a sand storm fight. the effect was done on set with huge gas powered fans called "ritters" and a brown flour made from crushed walnut shells.
we saw very little of the rock on second unit, so i can't give you much scoop on him. we spent two days shooting a fight between him and MCD that should be very exciting. i would just comment to say that being a wrestler prepares you for being a very good stuntman. he did most his own stunts, only being double for fire work, high falls, and for some sword work.
that's about it for my scoop. i hope it's of interest.
