Tomb Raiding

SNAKE CHARMER Villainess Meela (Velasquez) bore many battle scars from filming ''Mummy'', including 82 bruises and a hand injury

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The Mummy Returns

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What's up with squeaky pygmy mummies?
Sommers says audiences are divided over whether the ghoulies were scary -- or kind of cute. ''On the computer where we were doing special effects, there were these fake looking skeletons already in the program,'' he remembers. ''I thought we'd seen skeletons before, so why not shrink them down and make pygmy mummies? I thought they'd be cheaper, but I was completely wrong.'' At least tiny mummies are more fun. ''They can be terrifying little s---s,'' says Sommers.

Speaking of which: Why is there a child actor, 9 year old Freddie Boath, being menaced by the Mummy? Or perhaps it's the other way around.
Sommers 'fesses up to loathing most kid performers, and he purposely set the sequel in 1933, nearly a decade after the first movie, to avoid working with a child under the age of 8. ''I knew males 12 to 24 were going to be gunning for this character,'' says Sommers. ''So if there was even one precocious or annoying line in the script, it was gone. We made sure people could like him.'' The jury's still out on that one.

The battle scenes look pretty rough. Any injuries?
Oh, yeah. Velasquez ended up in the hospital for three days thanks to an onscreen catfight with Weisz. ''I had 82 bruises, and I couldn't move my hand for two days I was in such pain,'' says Velasquez. She also suffered a ruptured ovarian cyst. The Rock also suffered an on set ailment. ''He and I were in Morocco, and he got these chicken kabobs,'' recalls Vosloo. ''I warned him not to eat it, but he said, ''No, no, I fly all around the world for wrestling and eat all kinds of strange things, I'll be fine.' The next day he was doubled over in the desert, running for the Porta Potti.''

Is there going to be a ''Mummy 3''?
Maybe, but Sommers may not be at the helm. Vosloo also has his reservations. ''A trilogy might be nice, but four or five is pushing it. I hope I never have to face a check with a lot of zeroes for that. But if I ever do something like 'The Mummy in Los Angeles,' I won't be doing press. You can just write: 'Mr. Vosloo was ashamed to show his face.'''