The Mummy Returns was not particularly well received by critics after its debut in May 2001, but the public responded much more favorably. However, one scene was etched into the minds of every special effects enthusiast: The terrible CGI of the Scorpion King, based on the face of Dwayne Johnson, The Rock. Almost two decades later, the Corridor Crew team decided to fix that scene applying the best of modern technology… and deepfakes.
The cinema gave us some very interesting projects in 2001. It was the year of Shrek and A Knight's Tale, The Fast and the Furious and Zoolander, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and among all those movies, The Mummy Returns appears. What's special about The Mummy Returns? First, it was a relatively quick sequel (exactly two years), and second… its CGI. Who can forget its CGI?
I admit that computers had a fraction of today's power at that time, and software tools were not as robust. Also, critics approved the effort in terms of effects. But those details don't erase the fact that the CGI aged very badly. The people at Corridor Crew appropriately called it "PlayStation 2 graphics" and there they decided to undertake an almost impossible mission: Fix the Scorpion King CGI in just over a day.
Now... the movement of the scorpion at the beginning is very good, and the light of the flames on its body isn't bad either, but the close-up breaks all that. The work included some lighting fixes, giving the scorpion more 'weight' when it hits the doors, and making them older, with dust falling from them after the impact. The big challenge is the face of the scorpion.
Developing a 3D model of Dwayne Johnson from scratch is possible, but it would take too long. So Corridor Crew's alternative was to create a deepfake, a technique they successfully applied to a fictional Tom Cruise double. The problem is that The Rock has changed a lot in these last 18 years, and his recent photos are not that useful. The solution? Use the material from 'The Scorpion King', the official prequel based on this same character. It's 92 minutes of pure "The Rock version 2002", with a 4K remaster released in mid-June. The rest was a matter of loading the captured frames and letting the algorithm do its magic.
The final result is clearly not perfect, but the new scorpion far surpasses the original. At least it no longer tries to show 17 expressions at the same time, nor does it look like a console from the beginning of the century. We can only imagine what they could do with more time.
