Pleased with the Cagliostro concept, Laemmle hired John L. Balderston to write the script. Balderston had contributed to "Dracula" and "Frankenstein", and had covered the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb for the "New York World" when he was a journalist so he was more than familiar with the well publicised tomb unearthing. Balderston moved the story to Egypt and renamed the film and its title character Imhotep, after the historical architect. He also changed the story from one of revenge upon all the women who resembled the main character's ex-lover to one where the main character is determined to revive his old love by killing and mummifying her reincarnated self before resurrecting her with the spell of the Scroll of Thoth. Balderston invented the Scroll of Thoth, which gave an aura of authenticity to the story. Thoth was the wisest of the Egyptian gods who, when Osiris died, helped Isis bring her love back from the dead. Thoth is believed to have authored "The Book of the Dead", which may have been the inspiration for Balderston's Scroll of Thoth. Another likely source of inspiration is the fictional "Book of Thoth" that appeared in several ancient Egyptian stories.