Rick O'Connell returns! You can see more photos on director
Rob Cohen's blog about his filming of the
third film in the
fav-of-this-blog Mummy franchise. Also, some spoilerish tidbits:
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. . . .
. . . I am madly refining the Emperor/Rick O'Connell fight with stunt co-ordinators Ku Huen Chzu (known to everyone as Dede) and Mark Southworth. It's a real contrast in styles, Brendan's and Jet's, highly balletic, powerful Wushu vs. the brutal directness of Krav Maga plus magic and shape-shifting creatures leading to the the climax aided by Luke Ford and the clash of armies overhead. . . .
We are putting the pipelines in place to create the some 700 visual effects shots: the Terracotta Army, the Yeti and much, much more (I have to leave some surprises.)