In the most exciting meeting between a Stooge and ancient Egypt since Larry, Curly, and Moe faced down an undead mummy back in the 1930s, Iggy Pop has been announced as the narrator for an upcoming documentary about the tomb of New Kingdom pharaoh, Tutankhamun.
The documentary, Tutankhamun: The Last Exhibition, is being produced by Italy’s Laboratoriorosso and Nexo Digital in celebration of the centenary of Tut’s tomb being opened in 1922. The release will also mark the end of a traveling exhibition of King Tut’s treasures that began in 2019 and will conclude next year in Cairo.
Pop was approached for the film since its Italian narrator Manuel Agnelli is also a musician and Nexo Digital “were looking for somebody that could give a different appeal to the narration of the movie.” Presumably wondering how Pop would sound when he isn’t hacking away at his own chest with a knife or vomiting all over crowds, a Laboratoriorosso antiquities photographer said, “When we heard his voice for the first time we said this is the voice. This is what we need for this film.”
Nexo Digital’s site calls Tutankhamun: The Last Exhibition a documentary that “offers spectators, for the first time ever, an extraordinary opportunity to meet the Pharaoh, and relive those unique moments [of his tomb’s opening] on the big screen following exclusive coverage of how 150 items from among his treasures were moved to become part of the biggest international exhibition ever dedicated to the Golden Boy.”
Pop always shines in collaboration, whether with Josh Homme, Jim Jarmusch, or David Bowie and the Rugrats, and we expect he’ll be great in a documentary that looks at how archaeologists searched (and tried not to destroy) one of the largest collections of Egyptian antiquities ever unearthed. That said, we’re also glad that the movie’s producers looked a little further afield than Steve Martin for the job, considering he’s already had more than enough of an opportunity to tell the world about King Tut in the past.
[via Pitchfork]
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