First Look at "Pharaoh's Quest: The Curse of Amset-Ra!"

By: Andrew Bermudez

(Mustache Maniacs Film Co Headquarters; March 31, 2019)

     To finish up our adventurous exploration in March, we have one last film that we want to cover for all of you! Read on to find out about this summer's big blockbuster!

Get Ready to Travel to 1924!

     Unlike the Johnny Thunder Saga, this film is going to take place in the Golden Age of Adventure, right in the 1920's! Just like the LEGO sets that this film is based on, this film will follow the exploits of Jake Raines in 1924 Egypt, where Archibald Hale has summoned him to help him crack the ancient prophecy of Amset-Ra and stop the tyrant Pharaoh from rising again! Along with Helena Skvalling and Mac McCloud, they set off to find the treasures that are the key to his power! But what is the pharaoh's greatest secret?

Celebrating 100 Years of the End of World War 1!

     November 11, 2018 marked the 100th anniversary of the end of World War 1, so this film commemorates that anniversary by featuring the Battle of Beersheba as the prologue of the film, as well as the formal introduction of Jake Raines and Mac McCloud. But this prologue does more than recreate the famous battle. It also serves to set up the first plot point that sets the rest of the story in motion.

Visualizing The Battle of Beersheba

      As this historical event never appeared in the original story for Pharaoh's Quest, the events of October 31, 1917 were extensively researched and realized with these pieces of concept art by Andrew Bermudez, which later served as a visual guide for building the final sets, minifigures, and props. Above is a courtyard in Beersheba, extensively researched with images of the city, circa 1917. The dry and worn walls give the older buildings a worn, sand-blasted look, while the lone well gives the courtyard ample space for the characters to perform and for tight camera angles.

      For the British forces, this Camel Ambulance was sketched from photos of the real thing, complete with straps and padding to allow the stretchers to rest on the sides of the camel. This unique sight will appear in the film towards the end of the battle sequence.

     Filling out the cast of extras for the sequence are several Australian Light Horse Troopers (left) and Ottoman Infantrymen (right). These costumes were drawn to mimic the real-life uniforms, with extensive research taken to make them as accurate as possible. While the final versions were limited to LEGO's palette of minifigure parts (since custom-printed parts recreating these uniforms do not exist), they barely strayed away from their real-life counterparts.

This Slang and Recycled Film are The Real McCoy!

     Did you know that there's an entire cancelled film inside of this movie? Or that all of the 1920's slang is 100% authentic? That's right: all of the dialogue of this film was written with extensive research, meaning that all of the 1920's slang used is actual slang from the period!

     What's also worth mentioning is the presence of an entire film within this film! At the beginning of this year, we worked for one day to create the film The Bartender's Tale for THAC XVI, but the film was so involved and long (at least for a THAC entry), we didn't finish it on time. However, because the film was specifically tied to Pharaoh's Quest: The Curse of Amset-Ra and The Bartender's Tale had all of its assets ready to go, the two films, with no re-writing at all, were merged together to make a longer introduction! It also allowed us to show off more of the Barrel Bar set!

Archibald Hale's Field Tent Explored

     Something that is lightly mentioned, but never addressed, in the original story of the sets is where Archibald Hale spent the night while on his expeditions. The film's artists quickly imagined this giant tent, where the professor took care of his studies, examined new finds from the field, and spent the night. It was designed to be sophisticated and high-end (since Archibald Hale does NOT like getting dirty, something from the LEGO sets that was carried over), with some slight weathering from the sand. The corners and edges were intentionally made uneven to simulate fabric, with brown pieces used on the inside of the tent to look like wood supports that hold the tent up.

Six Fun Facts About the Tent!

     Though it may only be a tent, it is one of our most complex sets to date in terms of construction and set-up! It's in many ways a spiritual successor to the tent seen in Johnny Thunder and the Secret of Marco Polo, but far more advanced! Here's some fun facts that you should know about this set!

• This set is a practical set through-and-through. In other words, this set has an entire exterior and interior that are both ready for filming, meaning that the outside of the tent and the motor pool are both part of this set!
• When compared to Nevada Smith's tent set, this set (inside and outside) is 12 times larger! The tent by itself is twice the size of Smith's tent.
• The boards on Archibald Hale's desk are intentionally skewed to make a weathered look that the entire film shares.
• The fabric of the tent is actually several angled plates and airplane wings layered to create folds and creases. There's even a hole in the roof!
• The tent is only half a tent. The back is open to allow filming inside!
• The details in the tent are too many to count! If you love our hidden images, Archibald's collection of artifacts is pure eye candy, as it includes a pair of yellow epaulets from LEGO Pirates, a Kanohi Pakari from BIONICLE, a red clay statuette, a cow skull, a trident, an Aquazone Stingrays Helmet, and other special surprises!

Bringing the Stone Guardians to Life!

     The stone guardians made up a bulk of the original LEGO sets, so bringing those to life was an absolute must. Fortunately, the many guardians are as varied as the treasures that they protect, so keeping the amount of variety up was no hard task at all! For guardians like the Cursed Cobra Statue and the Sphinx, research was done to study how snakes and dogs move in real life, so that the statues could move in a realistic manner. The story placed these two guardians out in the open, so the sets gave the team plenty of room to bring the action right to life!

      For the Scarab and Scorpion guardians, these were carried out differently. The scorpion was already part of the pyramid, but the scarab needed a new home to make it stand out from the rest. It was decided that a well in Beersheba was the best place to put this guardian (and thus also tie the Battle of Beersheba into the rest of the movie), as the underground locale became a bit of an introduction to the world that Jake and Mac would encounter later in the film.

Canonical Ties to the Official Cinematic Universe

     Despite being set in 1924, this film actually does have several ties to later (and earlier) films! To avoid spoilers, we're not going to divulge how this film relates to our other films, but we can say what films will be connected to this film!

• A Future in the Past
• Johnny Thunder and the Gift of the Nile
• Legends of the Universe
• Johnny Thunder and the Wonders Beneath the Waves
• Patrick: The Movie
• Van Helbrick and the Monster Fighters
• Mysteries of the Arctic

 Another Flying Action Sequence - Third Time's the Charm!

     We've tackled flying sequences in the past in all three Johnny Thunder films. While we see the zeppelin montage from Johnny Thunder and the Gift of the Nile as a photo montage rather than a true flying sequence, we've had extensive technical problems with all three in the past, especially when combat is involved! Well, with this film, we've captured and nearly perfected a way to make our airplanes fly through the air! It uses many of the same techniques as in the past, but with some major changes. Here's a breakdown of how it is done.

1. Pictured above is the raw footage for the biplane. As you can see, the biplane is suspended in front of a green screen via a gimble attached to the bottom of the plane. The gimble has 6 points of articulation, which allow the plane to pitch, yaw, dive, and more. The green screen is lit via a separate lighting set-up.
2. At the editing stage, the gimble is masked out and the green screen is keyed out, leaving behind the biplane. The footage is also color-corrected to remove any traces of green left behind.
3. The biplane is composited with the background and footage of flying mummies (filmed separately) and is all animated together to create the finished effect.

This new sequence is going to be a major step ahead from our flying sequences in the past, advancing a tradition that started with Johnny Thunder and the Secret of Marco Polo!

Exciting Egypt Adventures, Coming August 9, 2019!

     As for when you can expect to see this film, you'll go on an Egyptian adventure starting August 9, 2019! We'll have an online premiere that day, where fans can engage with each other and the film live as the film debuts at 9:00 AM, PDT!

Lead Out

     And that's everything that we have unveiled so far about this hotly-anticipated film! We hope you're all looking forward to this adaptation of a popular, but short-lived, LEGO theme!