The Cast and Crew Talk About "The Mummy Returns"
Despite his cast members’ hesitancy towards a sequel, Sommers knew that he would eventually lure them all back by writing a great script.
“ I feel it all comes from the script because if you have a great script, whether or not the actors would rather be on stage or are questioning if they want to go through stuff again, they will come back. All good actors are a sucker for a good script.”
Once Fraser, Weisz, Fehr and the rest of “The Mummy”’s original cast was signed on for the second installment, Sommers knew that his next job was casting the film’s new villain, The Scorpion King.
“I knew I had to get some guy who could beat up Arnold and Brendan together, and that limited it to about three people,” Sommers jokes.
While Sommers admits that he wasn’t aware of who exactly The Rock was, a Universal casting director insisted that the two meet. Once they did, Sommers says that he was instantly impressed by The Rock’s persona and talent.
“The Rock was really charming and very smart, and after we auditioned him I noticed he took great direction and had the will to learn,” Sommers said. “Here I thought he would be like, 'Hey I know what I am doing. I perform in front of 60,000 people each week live' and instead he was like 'Yeah, I perform for 60,000 people but here, show me how to perform in front of this little lens.' “
“I flew out here to meet Stephen and his energy was just fantastic,” The Rock recalled. “He told me the entire story of the Scorpion King and you could see how passionate Stephen was about his history. He described everything and I was really diggin' it and excited to have the chance to be a part of the film.”
Sommers decision to cast The Rock had mixed reactions from “The Mummy Returns”’ cast members, though everyone admitted that their hesitancies towards having a wrestler cast as the Scorpion King ended once they met.
“I didn’t know much about wrestling in general, so when I heard they were casting The Rock as the Scorpion King I thought it was a joke,” Fehr said. “I was picturing some slow and overweight guy, but when I met The Rock he was gentle and good looking... I knew we truly had the best.”
While Sommers anticipated
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