The Mummy is a 1999 American film written and directed by Stephen Sommers. It is a remake of the 1932 film of the same title and stars Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, and Kevin J. O'Connor, with Arnold Vosloo in the title role as the reanimated mummy. The film follows adventurer Rick O'Connell as he travels to Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead, with a librarian and her older brother, where they accidentally awaken Imhotep, a cursed high priest from the reign of the Pharaoh Seti I of 1290 B.C. Filming began in Marrakech, Morocco, on May 4, 1998, and lasted seventeen weeks. The crew endured dehydration, sandstorms, and snakes during work in the Sahara desert. The film was the first to use the natural crater formation Gara Medouar. Industrial Light & Magic provided visual effects and blended film and computer-generated imagery to create the mummy. Jerry Goldsmith provided the orchestral score. The Mummy was theatrically released on May 7, 1999 and grossed over $416.4 million worldwide against a production budget of $80 million. The film's success spawned the sequels, The Mummy Returns (2001) and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008), as well as an animated series and the prequel/spin-off film The Scorpion King (2002), which generated its own sequels.