GROUP PROJECT:Create a Movie 1935

My group chose to remake the 1932 Mummy movie directed by Karl Freund. Imhotep, an ancient Egyptian priest, is somehow revived when a life-giving-spell - The Scroll of Thoth - is read near his tomb. Imhotep escapes, along with the Scroll in hand. Years after, he calls upon Frank, the son of the man whom the Scroll belonged to, because it only works for the creator and his sons, and his sons' sons; but, the original man, Joseph, has passed. Imhotep threatens to kill the son if he does not help find the tomb of Princess Anckenson Amon - Imhotep's long lost love. He demands Frank to revive her by reading aloud the Scroll near her tomb; however, in order for another person to be revived using the Scroll of Thoth, someone of the same sex must be sacrificed or, in this case, killed. He knows of a woman, Helen Grosvenor, who resembles his princess and wishes her dead so that he can make the princess a living mummy like himself. Disguising as a modern Egyptian, Imhotep tries everything to make the kill, yet they never get the chance to work. He becomes friends with Helen, but her husband Marc becomes very suspicious. Imhotep gives up and finally decides to kidnap and kill her somewhere no one will see. He gets her tied down and as he raises a knife, behind him appears Marc, who is also raising his arms with his hands grasping on a machete. Imhotep has no clue Marc is behind him. The scene cuts as both weapons are risen in the air.

We created this movie for entertainment and the genre is horror. The style is like any other typical big budget Hollywood film. We believed that a horror movie would be very popular during the 1930's because of the success of the Dracula and Frankenstein in 1931. The film would be released during the Great Depression so our film would be an escape from the depression. 

      We chose Universal Studios because during that time Universal was the only studio that really made horror films. Universal also made Dracula and Frankenstein so they would have the right actors and actresses and sets to make The Mummy. Also, the original Mummy was produced by Universal Studios so they have the rights to the story. We chose actresses and actors that had been in big productions before and had a contract with Universal Studios.

      We thought that Tod Browning would be a good director for our film. He had recently filmed Dracula and it was a huge success. Also, because it was a horror film, the same genre of ours, it would seem that Tod browning would have experience with horror films. Imhotep will be played by Boris Karloff. He starred in Frankenstein and also the original Mummy. We thought that because he did so well in the first one, we thought he would be a good fit for the remake. He also has a contract with Universal so he is able to be in our film. Our lead lady will be Mae West who was the star of Frankenstein. She will play the part of Helen Grosvenor. She had not been in any movies lately because she got in a car crash and got scars. These scars will make her look vulnerable and the audience will sympathize with her and want to protect her. The supporting characters had also been stars in big movies. Bela Lugosi will be played by Marc Grosvenor. He was the lead in Dracula and was signed by Universal. After some research, we decided that the focus of our film will be costumes and makeup. We found a woman by the name of Vera West who was very popular during that time and had a contract with Universal. She was perfect for the job because she had had experience with other horror films such as the   original Mummy. Her experience with designing the costumes for the original will help our movie seem genuine if not better. 

    If I were working on this movie alone and not with a group, I would have added more new characters. I would also change what happens completely different but that the same things happen, just in different ways. Also i would rather have the movie be in color instead of black and white.

The Hays Code will affect the movie drastically. We would have to take out most of the fight scenes. This is also why we stop the ending so short so it will be a cliff hanger and no violence will be shone which would be a violation to the Hays code.