Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz have been confirmed to be returning for a fourth The Mummy film, a franchise that had an incredible toll on Fraser’s body.
The actors are set to return to the film franchise 17 years after the third and most heavily criticised instalment, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
Weisz didn’t actually even return for the third film, being replaced by Maria Bello as Evelyn O’Connell, so this will mark the celeb’s first time back in the franchise in 25 years.
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The original movie focuses on adventurer Rick O'Connell (Fraser) and Egyptologist Evelyn (Weisz) travelling to the ancient Egyptian city of Hamunaptra, the city of the dead, where they unleash an ancient Mummy on the world.
The first film, which is a cult classic for many, however, was almost marked by tragedy as Fraser was involved in a horrifying, near-fatal stunt in the making of it.
Speaking in 2023 on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Fraser revealed that he had almost died whilst filming a scene in the original 1999 film in which his character Rick is briefly hanged.
The actor explained that in the scene he was ‘accidentally choked out’, saying that he’d been asked to ‘really sell it’ by director Stephen Sommers on the take where things went wrong.
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Fraser said: “The camera swooped around and I went on the toes and the guy holding the rope above me, he pulled it up a little higher and I was stuck up on my toes, I had nowhere to go but down.
“The next thing I knew my elbow was in my ear, the world was sideways, there was gravel in my teeth, and everyone was really quiet.”
Fraser joked that he was then woken up by a stunt co-ordinator who told him he had ‘joined the club’, and that the same thing had happened to Mel Gibson whilst filming Braveheart.
Speaking during promotion for the film in 1999 on The Late Show with David Letterman, Fraser also said that he had been ‘technically dead’ as a result of the stunt, saying that a doctor had told him he had died for ‘12 or 14 seconds’.
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This was part of several injuries the actor suffered whilst creating the trilogy of films, with George of the Jungle star saying in 2023: “I got a little banged up from years of doing my own stunts and needed a surgical fix on the spine and the hinges. And that took a lot out of me.
“I knew I would get better, but it took a long time.
“[During the film for The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor] every morning I was putting myself together like a gladiator with muscle tape and ice packs, strapping on this Transformer-like exoskeleton just to get through the scene.”
He also told GQ in 2018 that he 'probably was trying too hard, in a way that’s destructive', with the injuries he'd sustained requiring multiple surgeries.
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"I needed a laminectomy. And the lumbar didn't take, so they had to do it again a year later," he said.
Eventually, Fraser took nearly a decade off from the spotlight, partially motivated by his injuries suffered during stunt work, but mostly due to his allegation that he was sexually assaulted by a former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Phillip Berk.
The actor made a triumphant return with The Whale, winning an Oscar for Best Actor, and now will be making a return to the franchise many best know him for.
Topics: Brendan Fraser, Film, TV and Film
Michael Slavin