Iggy Pop Tapped to Narrate Tutankhamun Documentary ‘The Last Exhibition’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Shock rocker Iggy Pop has lent his voice to a new documentary on Ancient Egyptian child king Tutankhamun.
“Tutankhamun: The Last Exhibition” simultaneously charts the history of the tomb’s discovery in 1922 and the preparation of the record-breaking touring Tutankhamun exhibition, which launched in Los Angeles in 2019.
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The doc was produced in Italy by acclaimed antiquities photographer Sandro Vannini’s Laboratoriorosso Srl in partnership with Franco di Sarro’s Nexo Digital. Vannini also appears in the doc and serves as a producer and director of photography.
The Italian version is narrated by musician Manuel Agnelli and the producers decided to go with a musician rather than an actor for the international version too. “We were looking for somebody that could give a different appeal to the narration of the movie,” said Nexus Digital’s Rosella Gioffré. “And we thought of [Pop] and he accepted.”
“When we heard his voice for the first time we said this is the voice,” Vannini chimed in from Egypt, where he is currently working. “This is what we need for this film. The voice of Iggy Pop is simply incredible.”
“When he read the story what he was going to narrate he was immediately keen to work with us.”
The tour contained over 150 artefacts from the boy king’s grave, the largest number ever exhibited outside Egypt. The exhibition was due to tour until 2023 but was cut short due to the pandemic. The Egyptian government has since decreed Tut and his treasure will never again leave the country.
The doc was also impacted by the pandemic. It was originally due to be released in 2020 but in the end the timing worked out. “We’re more than happy because we’re going to hit the centenary of the discovery,” said Gioffré.
Tutankhamun’s grave was discovered in November 1922 by archaeologist Howard Carter and the 5th Earl of Carnarvon (whose ancestral home, incidentally, is Highclere Castle, better known these days as the house in Downton Abbey).
Nexo will distribute the doc in Italy and have sold it to Spain, New Zealand and Australia, among other territories. They are currently in negotiations with US and Japanese buyers.
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