In 1994, Dario Argento wanted to produce this film for Lucio Fulci. The movie was to be written by Dardano Sacchetti and the director of photography would be Sergio Salvati. It would be a new version of The Mummy story, something that Fulci loved so much that he had wanted to do it for fifteen years.
This time, the story would have taken place in Turin during the 1920s. Unfortunately, once again, the project didn’t turn out well. Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci (minus Dardano Sacchetti) would eventually choose to work on another classic horror theme: The Wax Mask.
For luciofulci.fr, the screenwriter recalled this missed opportunity: «You should ask Argento why he didn’t want to do it. The story was beautiful. It pleased Fulci a lot, and the theme was good enough because the Americans did a film about the mummy two years later. Whatever, here’s what happened. We were at the theater Barberini, where we attended the closing night of Fantasfestival. There were Argento, Fulci and I. Fulci received more applause than Argento. Argento felt uncomfortable, but as wily as he is, he stood up and announced that he would produce a film for Fulci and, showing me, he said that I would write the screenplay. So the audience applauded Argento […] When I wrote The Mummy, I had a huge argument with Argento, insomuch we never talked again. Argento didn’t understand the project, and we said to each other to go to hell…»