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Egypt Today, Egypt
June 5 2005
Nefertiti: Resurrection
June ,2005
The mysteries behind the life and love of an Ancient Egyptian queen
are unraveled in two competitive Hollywood film epics
By Sherif Awad
International filmmakers have always been intrigued by the air of
mystique that envelops the lives of ancient Egypt's pharaohs. While
screenwriters and directors of the last century were captivated by
Cleopatra (think: Elizabeth Taylor in 1963's film by the same name
with Richard Burton), the 18th Dynasty Queen Nefertiti seems poised
to finally emerge into the spotlight.
Nefertiti, said by some historians to have been one of the most
powerful and stunningly beautiful women of the ancient world, will
take her turn on the silver screen in two films set to begin shooting
next year, both of them digging deep into the story behind the
ancient queen to retell the legend of the immortal icon, frozen in
time.
ET Guide
More Mezzes at Mazmaza
Le Pacha's new bar-restaurant fusion offers a generous ...
Happenings around town
.. .
The Five Minute Guide to Shopping for an American Diploma School in
Egypt
The choices are many, but so are the risks. Here are some qu...
The Archivists
The editors of Ayam Masreya do their part to celebrate the H...
Nativity in Black
An Egyptian-Armenian sculptor heads back to Egypt to hold hi...
The boy King Revisited
Journalist and historian Soheir Helmi's reinterpretatio...
The first set to start filming, according to the French edition of
Premiere magazine, will reunite German-born director Marc Forster,
who directed the recently released and instantly successful Finding
Neverland (2004), with American stunner Halle Berry. The two
previously worked together on the critically acclaimed film noir
Monster's Ball (2002), for which Berry won the Oscar for best
performance by an actress in a leading role.
Berry is set to portray Nefertiti in the lavish production, although
the rest of the casting remains a mystery.
The second film is likely to prove more interesting on the local
scene, involving as it does both British-born producer John Heyman
and Egyptian writer Ahmed Osman. Heyman whose son David is
co-producer of the Harry Potter film series adapted from JK Rowling's
best-selling novels has been in the industry for years. But his
filmography as a producer tends to be less than impressive in terms
of quality. To date, he is credited with just 13 films in a career
that spans more than 30 years, including a filmed version of Richard
Burton's 1964 performance of Hamlet on Broadway and an early thriller
entitled Twinky (1969) that starred Charles Bronson and was filmed by
action director Richard Donner (who helmed the Lethal Weapon series).
In 1979, Heyman co-produced the most distinct and infamous production
of his career to date: Jesus. The film was shot on location in Israel
and subsequently screened worldwide; it has since been translated
into a staggering 896 languages (the target: 1,154), making it the
most translated film in the history of cinema. Two more films worth
mentioning in Heyman's filmography include Sir David Lean's last
film, A Passage To India (1984), and the family adventure entitled
D.A.R.Y.L. (1985), which starred a cast of relatively unknown actors.
>>From that date on, Heyman eased himself out of the limelight only to
reappear last month at Egyptian Media Production City (EMPC), where
he was seen scouting locations for his new film about Nefertiti.
According to EMPC, Michael Austin will be penning the script to be
directed by Hugh Hudson. The duo previously collaborated in a filmed
version of Edgar Rice Burroughs's novel Tarzan of the Apes in 1984
entitled Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes. Hudson is
perhaps best known as the director of 1981's Chariots of Fire.
Last November both Hudson and Austin reportedly visited Media City as
well, and Ahmed Nasser, the former Egyptian Radio and Television
Union (ERTU) sports anchorman, is said to be set to co-produce
through his company Super Global Network.
The controversy lies in the book on which the film will be based:
Moses and Akhenaten: The Secret History of Egypt at the Time of the
Exodus, published in 2002 and written by Ahmed Osman, who has been
carrying out his own research and hence developing his own unorthodox
theories that set out to rewrite history and perhaps even religion.
Osman, born in Cairo in 1934, began his career as a journalist in the
early 1960s after earning a law degree from Cairo University. He
moved to London in 1964 to study pharaonic history in an attempt to
find a connection between the stories of the Bible and historical
evidence uncovered by archaeologists during the past 100 years.
His first theories were nothing short of shocking to many. The local
weekly magazine October ran a lengthy series on Osman having
identified the prophet Joseph as Yuya, the minister and father-in-law
to Amenhotep III, a pharaoh from the 18th Dynasty.
This identification became the subject of his first book, Stranger In
The Valley Of The Kings (1987). His second (Moses: Pharaoh of Egypt,
1990) was largely an attempt to fix the date of the Israelite Exodus
from Egypt, while in his third book, The House of the Messiah (1992),
he sought to establish the identity of King David, the great ancestor
of Jesus Christ. Osman also identified the Prophet Moses as King
Akhenaten (husband of Queen Nefertiti) and Akhenaten's son King
Tutankhamun as none other than Jesus.
Last year, Osman presented a copy of his book Out of Egypt:
Unearthing the True Roots of Christianity (1998) to His Holiness Pope
Shenouda III, the 117th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See
of St. Mark.
These interesting associations, of course, later led to Heyman
pitching the tagline of his movie as: "A love affair between
Nefertiti and Moses."
"One can find in the Old Testament that Moses and Nefertiti had a
relationship," he adds.
"My argument is controversial and not widespread among many
Egyptologists," Osman says, "but I have collected evidence proving
that Akhenaten and Moses are the same person, which so far nobody has
been able to contest."
"Egypt's history is greatly ignored by the film industry besides
Cleopatra and The Ten Commandments and that's it," says Heyman,
referring to the two epic Hollywood blockbusters released over 40
years ago. "The shoot will not start before 2006 and locations will
be divided [between] studios and along the Nile in Upper Egypt." The
director plans to build an entire city like Akhenaten's capital in
Tel El-Amarna. Furthermore, the "Pharaonic Region" of the Egyptian
Media City will be included in the film's sets.
Although he claims it is too early to talk about the cast, Heyman
says he and Osman have met "several Egyptian actors who are very good
and charming, warm and kind." They include Dalia El-Beheiry, Hany
Salama, Nehal Anbar and Khaled El-Nabawy, who recently appeared in a
few scenes of Ridley Scott's latest epic Kingdom of Heaven.
Heyman says the film's final budget should come in at around US$100
million, with 40 percent of that figure allocated to shooting in
Egypt. After three decades in which prohibitive customs duties on
imported film equipment forced major Middle East productions
including Gladiator, Sahara, Spy Game, Black Hawk Down and The Mummy
to Morocco and Tunisia, Egypt has at last become affordable, Heyman
says. How so? Look no further than Minister of Culture Farouk Hosny,
who recently brokered a deal with the Ministry of Finance to abolish
duties on gear imported by international film companies shooting on
location in Egypt.
It is still uncertain whether there will be some reluctance on the
part of Egyptian stars to participate in a production involving more
than its fair share of controversy, given the fact that it is
anticipated that the movie will be shown on a worldwide scale.
http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=5235
June 5 2005
Nefertiti: Resurrection
June ,2005
The mysteries behind the life and love of an Ancient Egyptian queen
are unraveled in two competitive Hollywood film epics
By Sherif Awad
International filmmakers have always been intrigued by the air of
mystique that envelops the lives of ancient Egypt's pharaohs. While
screenwriters and directors of the last century were captivated by
Cleopatra (think: Elizabeth Taylor in 1963's film by the same name
with Richard Burton), the 18th Dynasty Queen Nefertiti seems poised
to finally emerge into the spotlight.
Nefertiti, said by some historians to have been one of the most
powerful and stunningly beautiful women of the ancient world, will
take her turn on the silver screen in two films set to begin shooting
next year, both of them digging deep into the story behind the
ancient queen to retell the legend of the immortal icon, frozen in
time.
ET Guide
More Mezzes at Mazmaza
Le Pacha's new bar-restaurant fusion offers a generous ...
Happenings around town
.. .
The Five Minute Guide to Shopping for an American Diploma School in
Egypt
The choices are many, but so are the risks. Here are some qu...
The Archivists
The editors of Ayam Masreya do their part to celebrate the H...
Nativity in Black
An Egyptian-Armenian sculptor heads back to Egypt to hold hi...
The boy King Revisited
Journalist and historian Soheir Helmi's reinterpretatio...
The first set to start filming, according to the French edition of
Premiere magazine, will reunite German-born director Marc Forster,
who directed the recently released and instantly successful Finding
Neverland (2004), with American stunner Halle Berry. The two
previously worked together on the critically acclaimed film noir
Monster's Ball (2002), for which Berry won the Oscar for best
performance by an actress in a leading role.
Berry is set to portray Nefertiti in the lavish production, although
the rest of the casting remains a mystery.
The second film is likely to prove more interesting on the local
scene, involving as it does both British-born producer John Heyman
and Egyptian writer Ahmed Osman. Heyman whose son David is
co-producer of the Harry Potter film series adapted from JK Rowling's
best-selling novels has been in the industry for years. But his
filmography as a producer tends to be less than impressive in terms
of quality. To date, he is credited with just 13 films in a career
that spans more than 30 years, including a filmed version of Richard
Burton's 1964 performance of Hamlet on Broadway and an early thriller
entitled Twinky (1969) that starred Charles Bronson and was filmed by
action director Richard Donner (who helmed the Lethal Weapon series).
In 1979, Heyman co-produced the most distinct and infamous production
of his career to date: Jesus. The film was shot on location in Israel
and subsequently screened worldwide; it has since been translated
into a staggering 896 languages (the target: 1,154), making it the
most translated film in the history of cinema. Two more films worth
mentioning in Heyman's filmography include Sir David Lean's last
film, A Passage To India (1984), and the family adventure entitled
D.A.R.Y.L. (1985), which starred a cast of relatively unknown actors.
>>From that date on, Heyman eased himself out of the limelight only to
reappear last month at Egyptian Media Production City (EMPC), where
he was seen scouting locations for his new film about Nefertiti.
According to EMPC, Michael Austin will be penning the script to be
directed by Hugh Hudson. The duo previously collaborated in a filmed
version of Edgar Rice Burroughs's novel Tarzan of the Apes in 1984
entitled Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes. Hudson is
perhaps best known as the director of 1981's Chariots of Fire.
Last November both Hudson and Austin reportedly visited Media City as
well, and Ahmed Nasser, the former Egyptian Radio and Television
Union (ERTU) sports anchorman, is said to be set to co-produce
through his company Super Global Network.
The controversy lies in the book on which the film will be based:
Moses and Akhenaten: The Secret History of Egypt at the Time of the
Exodus, published in 2002 and written by Ahmed Osman, who has been
carrying out his own research and hence developing his own unorthodox
theories that set out to rewrite history and perhaps even religion.
Osman, born in Cairo in 1934, began his career as a journalist in the
early 1960s after earning a law degree from Cairo University. He
moved to London in 1964 to study pharaonic history in an attempt to
find a connection between the stories of the Bible and historical
evidence uncovered by archaeologists during the past 100 years.
His first theories were nothing short of shocking to many. The local
weekly magazine October ran a lengthy series on Osman having
identified the prophet Joseph as Yuya, the minister and father-in-law
to Amenhotep III, a pharaoh from the 18th Dynasty.
This identification became the subject of his first book, Stranger In
The Valley Of The Kings (1987). His second (Moses: Pharaoh of Egypt,
1990) was largely an attempt to fix the date of the Israelite Exodus
from Egypt, while in his third book, The House of the Messiah (1992),
he sought to establish the identity of King David, the great ancestor
of Jesus Christ. Osman also identified the Prophet Moses as King
Akhenaten (husband of Queen Nefertiti) and Akhenaten's son King
Tutankhamun as none other than Jesus.
Last year, Osman presented a copy of his book Out of Egypt:
Unearthing the True Roots of Christianity (1998) to His Holiness Pope
Shenouda III, the 117th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See
of St. Mark.
These interesting associations, of course, later led to Heyman
pitching the tagline of his movie as: "A love affair between
Nefertiti and Moses."
"One can find in the Old Testament that Moses and Nefertiti had a
relationship," he adds.
"My argument is controversial and not widespread among many
Egyptologists," Osman says, "but I have collected evidence proving
that Akhenaten and Moses are the same person, which so far nobody has
been able to contest."
"Egypt's history is greatly ignored by the film industry besides
Cleopatra and The Ten Commandments and that's it," says Heyman,
referring to the two epic Hollywood blockbusters released over 40
years ago. "The shoot will not start before 2006 and locations will
be divided [between] studios and along the Nile in Upper Egypt." The
director plans to build an entire city like Akhenaten's capital in
Tel El-Amarna. Furthermore, the "Pharaonic Region" of the Egyptian
Media City will be included in the film's sets.
Although he claims it is too early to talk about the cast, Heyman
says he and Osman have met "several Egyptian actors who are very good
and charming, warm and kind." They include Dalia El-Beheiry, Hany
Salama, Nehal Anbar and Khaled El-Nabawy, who recently appeared in a
few scenes of Ridley Scott's latest epic Kingdom of Heaven.
Heyman says the film's final budget should come in at around US$100
million, with 40 percent of that figure allocated to shooting in
Egypt. After three decades in which prohibitive customs duties on
imported film equipment forced major Middle East productions
including Gladiator, Sahara, Spy Game, Black Hawk Down and The Mummy
to Morocco and Tunisia, Egypt has at last become affordable, Heyman
says. How so? Look no further than Minister of Culture Farouk Hosny,
who recently brokered a deal with the Ministry of Finance to abolish
duties on gear imported by international film companies shooting on
location in Egypt.
It is still uncertain whether there will be some reluctance on the
part of Egyptian stars to participate in a production involving more
than its fair share of controversy, given the fact that it is
anticipated that the movie will be shown on a worldwide scale.
http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=5235