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Short summary

In the year 3000 BC an illegitimate son is born to Queen Lostris and the brave warrior Tanus. Her devoted eunuch Taita, a loyal servant, takes the baby boy and places him in a basket on the Nile. Five thousand years later, during our time, famous archaeologist Duraid al Simma and his wife Royan discover Queen Lostris's grave at the same spot, with ten scrolls inside it resembling a form of diary. The seventh scroll, which contains directions to Mamose's magnificent tomb with the legendary treasure, disappears without trace. Soon afterwards the couple adopt an unusual boy who displays an almost magical urge to be close to the Nile, so they name him after the river god Hapi. It is only ten years later that Taita's secret is almost solved. Fanatical art thief Schiller is also very curious about the information, and tries to track down more with the aid of his sidekick Boris. Whe Duraid dies during a struggle for possession of the scroll, Hapi and his mother turn to Nick Harper, an old ...

User reviews


  • comment
    • Author: Agantrius
    After reading both _River_God_ and _The_Seventh_Scroll_, I can't begin to express how disappointed I was with this film. While I agree some poetic license may be admissible, this movie is at constant variance with the books, doing an incredible injustice to the exciting, plausible and wonderful stories written by Wilbur Smith. I can only believe that the writers, director and producers of the movie have never even heard of Mr. Smith, let alone read his work. Smith's vibrant characterizations are converted into wooden stick figures, all historicity is ignored or discounted, the realism of the books has been changed to include phantom monsters more appropriate to a cartoon. And why is an Egyptian henchman speaking Spanish? Geesh, no wonder the movie was made into a TV miniseries! Did Wilbur Smith have any input into the making of this movie? I can't believe that he did. Terrible, terrible movie. If you've read either or both of the books, don't waste your time or money watching this money. You will be sorely disappointed, I assure you.

    Only a moment of supreme generosity persuaded me to give this movie a ranking of '2', and that only because of the beautiful, sometimes spectacular, photography.
  • comment
    • Author: watching to future
    Well, I've read the book first and thought: wow would this be cool to see in a movie, than I started searching and found there was already a movie made of it... I bought the movie a week ago on DVD and watched it.. they did it awfully wrong! at first this kid Hapi,who isn't any character in the book, then the mix between the two books ('the river god' and 'the seventh scroll') than Nicolas needing funds while in the book he himself is actually the funder, the whole thing about the Hyksos is wrong also.. Taila is supposed to have invented the lightweight-chariot.. the whole thing about the tomb is also very wrong.. there is supposed to be a channel that has some kind of vacuum-suction around it.. the tomb itself was made in a maze with only a possibility to pass if one knows the rules of the ancient boa-game. There was nothing in the movie about Nicolas being English and Royan was a Coptic-Christian in the book, not a Muslim..This list is endless.. There were only a few things good about the movie, the actors which played Royan, Nahood, Taita, Boris, Mick and Tessay were well-chosen, the rest were just parodies of the characters in the book, Rasfer was the worst, it didn't get even close to the character that was in my head while I wrote the book.. It is such a shame that such a great book is mutilated in such a bad reproduction... I wonder why Wilbur Smith ever gave his permission for this..
  • comment
    • Author: Gavinranadar
    If you are a real Wilbur Smith fan, The Seventh Scroll TV mini series will probably be very hard to watch till the end. At least, for me it was. The script is way too simple; a lot of times the dialogs do not fit the character speaking, especially hapi's dialog. Besides that, the acting is unrealistic. For example, the "bad guys" at the beginning of the film look more like a caricatures then criminals. The only actor giving away some form of performance it the one playing Taita. He is probably also the one with a script closest to the text from the books.

    If only a real movie director would have the courage to take on of Wilbur Smiths series and make it into one or more descent movies...
  • comment
    • Author: Amhirishes
    This one looks great! Great costumes, great photography, especially the Ancient Egypt shots are great. But that's it... The actors are really bad... The kid is maybe the worst. The criminals in the opening scenes with the car are from Police Academy or a Bud Spencer movie or something. They look like they don't fit this story at all. Or is it a comedy? And even if it was it is not a good one!

    Roy Schneider (Blue Thunder!) is the only one here who can act and that tells everything. I bought the DVD without knowing what I would get, it just looked great on the cover. But this is not worth the money.
  • comment
    • Author: Vispel
    It takes a lot of hard work to make a movie good, but it might take even more work to make one bad - really bad. In this gem everyone succeeds.

    Let's not talk about plot holes here. Let's talk about craters instead. Ravines. And let's please talk about acting - and directing. The only halfway decent acting performance is by the colonel - or was it a general? And as for his name? It's not given here, so who knows? Credit for his piece de resistance is lost forever.

    Roy Scheider? Why does he always get these horrible parts? Either he just can't land the good roles or he has terrible taste, and in this turkey he lands another good one and unless he's absolutely desperate for work (which the poor guy might be) he has terrible taste. Playing a heavy named - Grant Schiller? Schiller is German; Grant is not. Who comes up with these stupid names? Oh that's right: the singularly lacklustre Kevin Connor who has not a single impressive credit to his CV and also commits the ultimate insult of directing - or actually refraining from directing.

    The absolute worst acting in the movie is by Katrina Gibson who shouldn't even be allowed on a sound stage to pluck litter. According to the IMDb, Gibson's been in an episode of Judging Amy. That must be the worst episode ever in that series.

    Rounding everything out: you can't really have a bad bad movie unless the music is really stupid and annoying, but fortunately Canadian McCauley comes through with flying colours.

    This one might work on slow kids in the five years of age range but hardly on anyone else. It will bore ten year olds and get them climbing the walls and screaming in protest.

    Strangely we watched this one all through to the end. We were perversely fascinated by it, mostly and primarily because it was so bad. But recommend it to anyone? Why?

    It takes a lot of work to make a bad movie, and this one succeeds in all possible ways. And it only makes you appreciate all the more how much work it takes to make a good movie.
  • comment
    • Author: Diab
    It is a truism that it takes a lot of effort to make a bad movie - this one is no exception.

    I am no lover of yanks but their amazingly simplistic view of the world and their ability to reduce everything to black and white as well as make events (even fictional ones in novels) fit an agenda that bears little or no relationship to complexity of any kind is irritating in the extreme.

    Wilbur Smith is descriptively verbose but weaves intricate tales that deserve more than has been delivered by this awful mishmash of a movie.

    Sad really for those who will never read Smith. They will be left with a less than decent portrayal of his Egyptian series, which has to be said is gigantic in its exposition.

    The Indiana Jones movies were snappy. To attempt to replicate that by manipulating Smith's novels into this production misses out by a country mile.

    Pathetic except for the photography and Art Malik.
  • comment
    • Author: Adrietius
    Greatest and best movie I have seen for years. Excellent and exciting story, never for a second boring. Wonderful acting, Art Malik as Taita, as the scribe from ancient Egypt being the best. The film is full of emotions and happenings, the parallel way of plots in modern age plus in ancient times was done without disturbing the flow of events. Great credibility all through the film. When can I buy it on video?
  • comment
    • Author: Kelezel
    I have copies of all of Wilbur Smiths books and have read and re-read them all. I decided to start finding and purchasing DVDs of movies that were made of his books to add to my library. After reading all the above critiques of the mini series on "The Seventh Scroll" and how everyone was upset with how 2 of Wilbur Smith's Egyptian series books were so horribly mangled in this mini-series. I'm going to save my money and re-read the books instead! This reminded me of how upset I was when I saw all of the James Bond movies and couldn't believe how the film industry could butcher and destroy the books written by Ian Flemming. And I certainly do not want to see any movie that mangles the GREAT works of Wilbur Smith the same way The movie and film industry did to Ian Flemming's James Bond books.
  • Series cast summary:
    Jeff Fahey Jeff Fahey - Nick Harper 3 episodes, 1999
    Karina Lombard Karina Lombard - Royan Al Simma 3 episodes, 1999
    Roy Scheider Roy Scheider - Grant Schiller 3 episodes, 1999
    Art Malik Art Malik - Taita 3 episodes, 1999
    Tony Musante Tony Musante - Duraid Al Simma 3 episodes, 1999
    Jeffrey Licon Jeffrey Licon - Hapi Al Simma 3 episodes, 1999
    Katrina Gibson Katrina Gibson - Lostris 3 episodes, 1999
    Phillip Rhys Phillip Rhys - Tanus 3 episodes, 1999
    Edmund Purdom Edmund Purdom - Pharaoh Mamose 3 episodes, 1999
    Wilfried Baasner Wilfried Baasner - Lord Intef 3 episodes, 1999
    László I. Kish László I. Kish - Boris 3 episodes, 1999
    Don Warrington Don Warrington - Colonel Nogo 3 episodes, 1999
    Sanjay Sharma Sanjay Sharma - Tamre 3 episodes, 1999
    Hassani Shapi Hassani Shapi - Nahoot Guddabi 3 episodes, 1999
    Michael Mears Michael Mears - Cruz 3 episodes, 1999
    Chu Omambala Chu Omambala - Mek Nimmur 3 episodes, 1999
    Lucy Goncalves Lucy Goncalves - Tessay 3 episodes, 1999
    Valeria Marini Valeria Marini - Gina Valentino 3 episodes, 1999
    Ahmed Boulane Ahmed Boulane - Plane Mechanic 3 episodes, 1999
    Massimiliano Bianchi Massimiliano Bianchi - Rasfer 3 episodes, 1999
    Abdellah Chakiri Abdellah Chakiri - Hamed 3 episodes, 1999
    Tommy Eytle Tommy Eytle - Jali Hora 3 episodes, 1999
    Aziz Fatihi Aziz Fatihi 3 episodes, 1999
    Rachid Fekkak Rachid Fekkak 3 episodes, 1999
    Zaki Houari Zaki Houari 3 episodes, 1999
    Abdellah Lamrani Abdellah Lamrani - Tessay's Father 3 episodes, 1999
    Abdelkader Lofti Abdelkader Lofti - Chamberlain 3 episodes, 1999
    Kamelia Mahroug Kamelia Mahroug 3 episodes, 1999
    Younes Megri Younes Megri - Omar 3 episodes, 1999
    Mohammed Miftah Mohammed Miftah - Kratus 3 episodes, 1999
    Stefano Maria Mioni Stefano Maria Mioni - Henchman 3 episodes, 1999
    Oumnia Oumnia 3 episodes, 1999
    Giorgio Tregnaghi Giorgio Tregnaghi 3 episodes, 1999
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