Over the years, this film has been in various development stages as a newer version of The Mummy (1999) with Richard Donner involved, but with studio politics and Donner accepting other projects, it faded into limbo. Eventually, this lesser-scaled version was produced.
John Rhys-Davies was in a similar film - Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - where he also helps out with the archaeology work in the pyramids and goes inside one.