I read today that Will Smith is planning to make a movie entitled The Last Pharaoh. The title seems to be a bit of a misnomer since the movie is about Taharqa, one of the Nubian kings who ruled over Egypt during the Third Intermediate Period. There’s really no way you can claim he was the last pharaoh. In fact, he wasn’t even the last pharaoh of his own dynasty.
Apparently, Smith has hired Randall Wallace to write the screenplay. Wallace has written screenplays for a number of historical epics, such as Braveheart, Pearl Harbor, and The Man in the Iron Mask. Interestingly, Wallace was also involved in writing the computer game Titan Quest (quite frankly, given the game’s paper-thin storyline, he should probably leave that off his resume!). While Wallace isn’t exactly known for his scrupulous historical accuracy, he does at least write entertaining screenplays. That gives me hope that The Last Pharaoh might at least be enjoyable, even if it is bastardized history.
Oddly enough, ancient Egypt hasn’t been well served on the silver screen. I’m trying to think of a truly good movie about ancient Egypt and I’m coming up blank. Usually films about Egypt are undermined by a fatal combination of hackneyed story ideas and historical inaccuracies that make Cate Blanchett’s Elizabeth look like a scholarly monograph. Which is a shame, really, because Egyptian culture is rich with ideas for good movies beyond the tired revived mummy trope.
Codex Lochianus 