With 2015 chock full of movie goodness, 2016 has just gotten a couple of big projects. Both the latest reboot of THE MUMMY franchise and Duncan Jones‘ WARCRAFT movie have gotten 2016 release dates, therefore staking out what is sure to be another busy movie season.
Duncan Jones‘ WARCRAFT was previously slated for a December 18, 2015 but J.J. Abrams‘ STAR WARS: EPISODE VII laid claim to that date. So, in a move that absolutely no one finds surprising, WARCRAFT flinched and Universal moved it to March 11, 2016. That should clear more than enough time for EPISODE VII to clean up at the box office while also giving WARCRAFT ample space to rule theaters during the final days of Winter.
Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman‘s bid to create a shared Universal monster series begins with THE MUMMY which may go more of the horror route rather than the Indiana Jones style the Brendan Fraser films used. Universal will open their Summer movie season with THE MUMMY when it opens on April 22, 2016. Giving the film an early summer window likely means the film will be a PG-13 movie aimed to maximize box office returns, so let’s just hope it doesn’t turn out like another VAN HELSING.
Both movies have a chance to be interesting and fun flicks, I just hope they live up to their potential. Universal hasn’t had much luck with franchises, especially considering they also announced that their fantasy movie SEVENTH SON, starring Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore, was originally slated for a January 17, 2014 release before being pulled indefinitely. That film is now going to premiere on February 6, 2015, a full year after it was originally supposed to. Read into that what you will, but it does not bode well.