Archived copy reference. The original Cinesite press release (May 3, 1999) is no longer available on its original site; the full text is preserved in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine snapshot of November 3, 2004, linked below. This page gives a brief summary so visitors know what the release covers. Saved to the VisionCrew press archive on October 27, 2026.
Cinesite Press Release — May 3, 1999
"May 3, 1999 -Cinesite Visual Effects explored new territory by creating a blazing hot digital fire that consumes much of downtown Cairo, Egypt, in director Stephen Sommers' reprise of the 1932 classic film The Mummy."
The release describes how Cinesite Visual Effects created a digital fire inferno for a shot of downtown Cairo exploding in flames in director Stephen Sommers' The Mummy (1999). Cinesite visual effects supervisor Kevin Lingenfelser explains that the 201-frame shot coupled miniatures with the computer-generated inferno and was composed of over 100 seamlessly composited elements. 3-D artists John Hewitt and James Peterson created the CG fire in Alias Wavefront's Maya FX using dynamic particle simulations and 3-D textures.
The release credits Vision Crew Unlimited: "The buildings in downtown Cairo, built to approximately 1/8 scale, were shot at Vision Crew Unlimited, in Culver City, under the supervision of Evan Jacobs."
Read the full archived press release at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine:
Cinesite Fires Up The Mummy (Wayback Machine, November 3, 2004)