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• August 2007

ARCHIVES FOR September 2007

MONTREAL COUNT-DOWN

September 24, 2007 9:24 AM

Tomorrow begins the big ten-day count-down to finishing the first half of the shoot, our sojourn here in Montreal. We then move to the desert north of Beijing to shoot the epic ending battle where the Terracotta Army takes the field once more. There are over 700 visual effects shots in the film and a good percentage of them will take place in the last twenty minutes of the movie. I am still on schedule which is as much a miracle to me as to the studio brass. There have been many days of elation and many moments of pain but, overall, it has been a shoot of smooth flow and meticulous detail. I've been editing behind myself because in a large VFX movie like this, I have to turn over sequences to Digital Domain and Rhythm & Hues, our two VFX houses, before the whole film is cut, or shot for that matter, just to make the delivery date in early July.

Todd Grossman and I have been putting together another video clip that we'll be able to put up this week exploring why people who work in the movie business have chosen this field. It's funny and insightful.

We also are going to post a few new photos of Brendan Fraser, Michelle Yeoh and Isabella Leong, among others.

Thank you all for sending your congrats on the impending birth. On Thursday, we'll find out how many are coming! Yikes!!! It means a lot to me to feel this connection with you all. Vic Armstrong was right about this blog thing: even though, once in awhile, there's something trollic, even that is okay as I feel more connected to the very people for whom I make movies. That connection on my laptop has proven to be another fantastic dimension to having the privilege of this career I have chosen.

Bye for now.

Rob

LIFE RHYTHMS

September 13, 2007 3:56 PM

Today concludes our seventh week of shooting out of a scheduled eighteen. I’m in a set we call “the ruins” which is the destroyed foundation of a farm settlement in a Himalayan mountain pass shooting three distinct love scenes: Brendan and Maria, Luke and Isabella, and John Hannah and a yak called Geraldine (not really a love scene, only kidding.) The wind and snow are pummeling the set and it looks cold, very cold but the illusion is ruined when the clapstick guy marks the shot in a T-shirt. It’s an effective illusion, but all Hollywood films are an illusion.

Brendan is one of the most inventive actors with which I’ve had the pleasure to work. For this incarnation of “The Mummy,” he has lost twenty pounds and toned himself into a rock, so buff. I had this crazy idea that, for his climatic fight against Jet Li, he could not top him with Kung Fu or traditional martial arts so I asked him to train in a school called “Krav Magah,” a street fighting system developed by Czech Jews, now used by the Israeli Army. It’s all about minimalism and devastating efficacy. I never saw an actor take a suggestion so much to heart. He has trained continuously in the art and I think you will all see an enormous difference in the mano a mano action scenes in my film. He’s still charming and funny but the power has been turned up many notches.

Production rhythm is unpredictable. Each day, each hour is different than its predecessor. We have now found the film’s stride. Francois and Alfonso are whipping those Arriflexes around, Simon Duggan our ace D.P. is lighting ever more beautiful shots, Nigel Phelps’ sets are coming to life “inch by motherfucking inch” as my friend Michael Mann likes to say. A film crew in its stride is a beautiful thing for a director to ride, and I’m riding for all I’m worth.

I’ll be putting on another video, this one about some of our stunt team, maybe tomorrow. By the way, these small doco’s are shot and edited by Todd Grossman, a very talented young director in his own right. He did the full-length documentaries on “XXX” and “Stealth” which appear on the DVD’s of both films. Good, bad, or indifferent, every film has a different journey and a record of that experience is a valuable insight to either what went right or what went wrong. It’s my pleasure to share that with anyone who wants to look a little deeper into my process.

Also, today is a special day because my wife Barbara showed up on the set and gave me a present: a pair of baby shoes announcing that she was pregnant! I have a 20 year old son already but this will be a whole other adventure. I’m happier than I can share.

Take care for now.

September 10, 2007 6:22 PM

For those of you who were curious, our Access Hollywood segment is not airing September 10, but will soon.

Wallpaper Image

September 10, 2007 8:30 AM

Hello All,

Here's a cool photo of our mausoleum set taken last week by Jasin Boland. It makes for a cool wallpaper background on your computer.

Enjoy!

UP AND RUNNING

September 4, 2007 6:03 AM

It was exciting for me to hear from so many of you, even the occasional troll. We are now shooting in my re-creation of the Tomb of Xi'an where the Terracotta Warriors were discovered by a Chinese farmer digging a new well in 1974. "Access Hollywood" was here last Friday. They interviewed Brendan, Isabella, Luke and myself and should air September 10th. Check it out.

A few of you have inquired about Rachel Weisz and this deserves a response. Rachel decided to leave the franchise many years ago, after "The Mummy 2" finished shooting. We all had hopes that she would change her mind but I never had the opportunity to meet her or talk to her.

Actors are just like other people, only more so, to paraphrase an old saying. They are complex souls who have trained themselves to be mirrors of reality, to show us who we are or who we hope to be. All the technical side of film making, all the finest special effects would be nothing without actors. Even in the magnificent Pixar films, the actor's voice gives life to the painstaking animation. Without them, even the most brilliant technical achievements would fall flat.

An actor's thought process deciding to do a role is beyond analysis. Neither their agents and managers, nor their coaches, trainers, and nutritionists can tell you what they are going to do or not do. I am sure, like everyone in a creative process, a decision comes after a labyrinthian journey but, even after 30 films, I cannot predict what is going to happen.

This left us with a problem and an opportunity. After much casting, meetings, drinks, etc., I shot a day of screen tests with five major actresses and the one that blew us away was Maria Bello. She had such strong chemistry with Brendan (who generously did the screen tests with all five), that it wasn't much of a decision once I cut the film. She had beauty and precision, humor, and an inner fire that has always propelled her in films such as "THE COOLER" and "HISTORY OF VIOLENCE". She had already mastered the English accent and brought a freshness to the role. Also, she brought out several new shadings in Brendan. The newness really worked and fit in to my hopes that my film would be a "re-boot" to the franchise, not more of the same.

Whatever Rachel decides to do with her career, I only wish her success and personal satisfaction. She was pivotal in the success of the first two, for sure.

As to the score, Randy Edelman who did "DRAGON, THE BRUCE LEE STORY" and "DRAGONHEART" for me will be composing. A lot of decisions a director makes are based around knowledge of the talent with which he wants to collaborate, their strengths, their "wheel houses." The film I am making is so squarely in Randy's wheel house, my comfort in working with him, his obvious talent in symphonic/thematic writing, all pointed to this decision.

I love working with BT and Trevor Morris and will hopefully do so again. I have enjoyed a complex and satisfying collaboration with them. They are top creative talents.

Well, I have to go drop Luke Ford into a pile of skulls and mummified concubines, so until next time...

Rob