Gods Of Egypt Full Movie
Kathryn Garivay
Gods of Egypt is a 2016 fantasy action film directed by Alex Proyas based on a fantastical version of ancient Egyptian deities. It stars Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Brenton Thwaites, Chadwick Boseman, lodie Yung, Courtney Eaton, Rufus Sewell, Gerard Butler, and Geoffrey Rush. The film follows the Egyptian god Horus, who partners with a mortal Egyptian thief, on a quest to rescue his love and to save the world from Set.[5]
Filming took place in Australia under the film production and distribution company Summit Entertainment in conjunction with Thunder Road Pictures and Proyas' production company Mystery Clock Cinema. While the film's production budget was $140 million, the parent company Lionsgate's financial exposure was less than $10 million due to tax incentives and pre-sales. The Australian government provided a tax credit for 46% of the film's budget. When Lionsgate began promoting the film in November 2015, it received backlash for its predominantly white cast playing Egyptian deities. In response, Lionsgate and director Proyas apologized for ethnically inaccurate casting.
In ancient Egypt where the gods live among the mortals, King Osiris is killed by his jealous brother Set during the coronation of Osiris's son Horus. Set then defeats Horus and takes his eyes, proclaiming himself the new king, and commands mankind to pay riches to pass into the afterlife.
One year later, with most of Egypt enslaved by Set, Zaya, a slave to Set's chief architect Urshu, gives plans for Set's pyramid to her lover, Bek. Using the plans, Bek infiltrates Set's treasure vault and steals one of Horus's eyes, but he and Zaya are caught by Urshu, who kills Zaya with an arrow as she and Bek escape. Bek takes her body to the exiled Horus along with the eye, promising to help find the other if he brings Zaya back from the dead.
They visit the divine vessel of Horus's grandfather Ra. Neutral about the conflict with Set, and at war with the shadow beast Apophis that threatens to devour the world, Ra does not restore Horus's power but allows him to take a vial of divine waters to weaken Set. Ra explains that Horus's loss of his powers is the result of not fulfilling his destiny, which Horus believes means avenging his parents' deaths.
Set asks Hathor to take him to the underworld, but she refuses and joins up with Bek and Horus. They hatch a plan to infiltrate Set's pyramid, recruiting Thoth to solve the riddle of the guardian sphinx. Overcoming the pyramid's entryway and the sphinx's riddle, they reach the source of Set's power. Before they can use the divine water, they are ambushed by Set, who destroys the divine water and takes Thoth's brain, but Horus saves Hathor and Bek. Hathor calls on Anubis to take Bek to the underworld and offers her bracelet as Zaya's payment for passage to the afterlife, sacrificing herself as doing so exiles her to the underworld.
Absorbing Thoth's brain, Osiris's heart, Horus's eye and wings from Nephthys, Set confronts Ra aboard his solar barge. Ra explains Set's mistreatment were tests to prepare him to take Ra's place as defender of the world against Apophis. Dismayed, Set decides to destroy the afterlife to become immortal, using his new powers to overpower Ra. Taking Ra's spear and casting him off the barge, Set frees Apophis to consume the mortal and underworld realms.
As Apophis attacks, the gates to the afterlife are closed. Zaya, having refused Hathor's gift for not wanting an afterlife without Bek, encourages Bek to return to the mortal world and help Horus stop Set. As Horus battles Set atop an obelisk, Bek defeats and kills Urshu, before removing Horus's other eye from Set's armor, mortally wounding himself in the process and falling from the great height. Regaining his power to transform, Horus saves Bek from falling over retrieving his eye, and flies him to safety, realizing that his true destiny was to protect his people. With renewed strength, Horus outmaneuvers and kills Set. Finding Ra wounded in the aether, Horus returns his spear, allowing Ra to repel Apophis and Anubis to reopen the gates.
A child returns Horus's other eye and the god lays the deceased Bek in Osiris's tomb beside Zaya. For his deeds, Ra offers to bestow Horus with any power, and Horus asks that Bek and Zaya be brought back to life. Ra grants his wish and the other gods are restored, except Horus's parents, who had already passed into the afterlife. Horus is crowned king and declares access to the afterlife will be paid with good deeds in life. Bek is made chief advisor and gives Horus Hathor's bracelet. Horus leaves to rescue her from the underworld.
In addition: Rachael Blake plays Isis, the wife of Osiris; Emma Booth plays Nephthys, sister of Isis and wife of Set; and Lindsay Farris provides as the voice of an older Bek, who narrates the film. Yaya Deng and Abbey Lee also appear as Astarte and Anat, goddesses of war who are loyal to Set. Goran D. Kleut provides the motion-capture and voice of Anubis, an Egyptian God who takes the form of a Jackal and leads Zaya into the underworld.
Actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau was cast in June 2013.[9] Gerard Butler, Geoffrey Rush, and Brenton Thwaites joined the cast toward the end of 2013.[10] Chadwick Boseman and lodie Yung joined the cast at the start of 2014.[11]
The film was shot in Australia. A crew of 200 began pre-production in Sydney in New South Wales, and producers considered filming in Melbourne in Victoria, to take advantage of the state's tax incentive. Docklands Studios Melbourne was too booked to accommodate Gods of Egypt, and producers were instead offered an airport facility for production.[12] The Australian states New South Wales and Victoria competed to be the location of the film's production, and Summit selected NSW in February 2014. The state's deputy premier, Andrew Stoner, estimated that the production would add 400 jobs to the state and contribute $75 million to its economy.[13][nb 1]
Principal photography began on March 19, 2014 at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney.[14] The setting of Anubis' temple was filmed at Centennial Park in Sydney, and visual effects were laid over the scene.[15] The production budget was $140 million. Jon Feltheimer, the CEO of Summit's parent company Lionsgate, said Lionsgate's financial exposure was under $10 million due to tax incentives of filming in Australia, as well as foreign pre-sales.[16][17] The Australian government's tax credit to have the film produced in the country covered 46% of the $140 million production budget, and most of the remaining budget was covered by the foreign pre-sales.[4]
In the film, the gods in humanoid form are 9 feet (2.7 m) tall and in "battle beast" form are over 12 feet (3.7 m) tall. Proyas used forced perspective and motion control photography to portray the difference in height between the actors portraying the gods and the humans. Proyas called the logistical challenge a "reverse Hobbit", referring to The Lord of the Rings films, in which Hobbits are depicted as shorter than humans.[6] For the Sphinx, actor Kenneth Ransom portrayed the giant creature via motion capture. For the god Thoth, who can appear as many copies, actor Chadwick Boseman was filmed hundreds of times from different angles. For a scene with many copies of Thoth, other actors took a day to film the scene, where Boseman filmed the scene for three days.[15]
The film drew criticism due to the fact that none of the main actors were of Egyptian descent. White actors, predominantly of northwestern European descent, make up most of the principal cast of Gods of Egypt. When Lionsgate began marketing the film, the Associated Press said the distributor received backlash for ethnically inaccurate casting. Lionsgate and director Alex Proyas both issued apologies. The AP said, "While some praised the preemptive mea culpa... others were more skeptical, concluding that it's simply meant to shut down any further backlash."[18]
The casting practice of white actors as Ancient Egyptian characters was first reported after filming started in March 2014, when Daily Life's Ruby Hamad highlighted the practice as "Hollywood whitewashing".[19] Lionsgate released a set of character posters in November 2015, and The Guardian reported that the casting received a backlash on Twitter over the predominantly white cast. Some suggested that the casting of black actor Chadwick Boseman, who plays the god Thoth, played into the Magical Negro stereotype. The previous year, the biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings by director Ridley Scott received similar backlash for having a white cast.[20][nb 2] The Washington Post's Soraya Nadia McDonald also disparaged the casting practice for Gods of Egypt and said Lionsgate released the posters at an unfortunate time. She said with the release of Aziz Ansari's TV series Master of None in the previous week, "Whitewashed casting and the offensiveness of brownface has pretty much dominated the pop culture conversation this week. Promotion for the movie is beginning just as we're wrapping a banner year for discussions of diversity and gender pay equity in the film industry."[21]
When Lionsgate followed its release of posters with a release of a theatrical trailer, Scott Mendelson at Forbes said, "The implication remains that white actors, even generic white actors with zero box office draw, are preferable in terms of domestic and overseas box office than culturally-specific (minority) actors who actually look like the people they are supposed to be playing." He said almost none of the actors, aside from potentially Butler, qualified as box office draws.[22] BET's Evelyn Diaz said while Ridley Scott had defended his casting practice for Exodus by claiming the need to cast box office draws, "Gods of Egypt is headlined by character actors and Gerard Butler, none of whom will have people running to the theater on opening day."[23] Deadline's Ross A. Lincoln said of the released trailer, "Casting here stands out like a sore thumb leftover from 1950s Hollywood. I suspect this film generates a lot of conversation before it hits theaters February 26, 2016."[24]
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