Glossing over the fact that the last Mummy film was released in 2008, Universal is already putting plans for a reboot into motion. The studio has already hired Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci to produce the film and Prometheus writer Jon Spaihts to pen a draft. Now sources are saying that Total Recall director Len Wiseman will be the one to direct the reboot for The Mummy.
According to Deadline, Kurtzman and Orci will produce the film under their Universal-based K/O Paper Products, alongside former partners Sean Daniel and Jim Jacks. Daniel and Jacks worked on the previous Mummy trilogy, which grossed over $1.25 billion. The site reports that Spaihts’ script will be set into a “modern-day context.”
Here’s what Wiseman told Deadline:
“When I first heard Universal was relaunching this, that is the image that popped into my head, the period tale, the old monster, but when Bob and Alex pitched it, there was a great new take and approach, and a very different mummy as well,” Wiseman told me. “It’s a darker twist on the material, a scarier version.”
Kurtzman had this to say about the new Mummy film:
“We’re reaching into the deep roots of The Mummy, which at its beating heart is a horror movie and then an action movie, and putting it into a context that is real and emotional,” Kurtzman said. “It’s still a four-quadrant film but as a lot of recent movies have proven, audiences are hungry for more than they used to be. You can still have a family movie, an action movie that’s more grounded than these used to be. Without saying too much, we’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from Michael Crichton’s books, and how he ground fantastical tales in modern-day science.”
So, are you happy with Universal’s decision to hire Len Wiseman as director?
[Source: Deadline]
