Recently, it was announced that director Len Wiseman would be taking on Universal’s franchise for THE MUMMY, but other than that we knew very little. Initially called a reboot, it now seems to be more of a re-imagining. Speaking to MovieWeb, Wiseman had this to say about the new take on the long-running franchise and if there was any hesitation from the studio in hiring him after the failure of his reboot of TOTAL RECALL:
“There was skepticism. The difference between the two, if THE MUMMY is to be the next movie for me, is that THE MUMMY is a completely different film. It is a modern day take. It doesn’t have anything to do with the Brendan Fraser films, and it is not a remake of any kind,” said Wiseman.
He went on, touching on the historical precedence of The Mummy, most famously played by Boris Karloff in 1932:
“THE MUMMY is one of Universal’s long standing, iconic characters, well before the Brendan Fraser movies… This is such a different thing. What was attractive to me…There is still a script to be written, and all of that….But the pitch was to go with a much different tone. It was a Mummy like I’d never heard of before. Its nothing like what you would expect, at all, oddly. I was picturing Egypt, and the sand swept settings. The mummy wrappings. When I heard what they were wanting to actually do with it, it was shocking…”
Wiseman added: “It’s horror. Its epic. It’s more of a modern day version of what would happen if we came across a mummy in our world today. It is pretty fascinating.”
So, a modern-day horror flick centered on a Mummy. I can dig it, I suppose. In all honesty, I’m not exactly dying to see a new Mummy movie, but I’m glad they’re not making a carbon copy of the Brendan Fraser films, which were stupid, fun, and cheesy as hell. This sounds like a more bold direction. Hopefully, Wiseman will find room for his lovely wife, Kate Beckinsale, in the remake/reimagining, as she tends to be the best thing about his movies.
More as this develops.
Go ahead…just give me a reason to post a picture of Kate Beckinsale…