‘The Mummy’ Reboot Gets Alex Kurtzman as Director

[Transcendence]

 

 

In the days leading up to the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con, Sony/Columbia announced that their Amazing Spider-Man franchise spinoff Sinister Six will see a 2016 release, pushing The Amazing Spider-Man 3 back to 2018. This all came on the heels of mooted Venom director Alex Kurtzman’s vague answers on the state of that film and TASM3.

 

Kurtzman was clear on his main priority, however: developing the possible shared-universe reboot of Universal Studios’ classic line-up of movie monsters, starting with The Mummy. Now, The Wrap reports that Alex Kurtzman will be directing the film, with the intention of getting the supernatural horror flick in theaters by Spring 2016.

 

This updated version of the classic chiller starring Boris Karloff (Frankenstein) – previously re-envisioned in the late 1990s as a Brendan Fraser-led adventure blockbuster – will evidently be set in the present day, aiming for “a four-quadrant, family-friendly action-adventure tentpole†tone. Before Kurtzman and his longtime creative partner Roberto Orci (Transformers, Star Trek) parted ways (for the most part), they worked on the script with Prometheus and Doctor Strange screenwriter Jon Spaihts.

 

Kurtzman and Fast and the Furious franchise writer/producer Chris Morgan are now the “creative godfathers†behind Universal’s new generation of monster movies, having apparently nailed down an approach which will now move the project forward.

 

 

 

 

Previously, The Mummy had already lost two directors in the form of Andy Muschetti (Mama) who left over “creative differences,†and Len Wiseman (Underworld), who stepped away due to a scheduling conflict. Muschetti reportedly wanted to take the film in a far darker direction than the studio preferred, and it sounds like Kurtzman and Morgan have found the type of crowd-pleasing groove they have brought to several other hit franchises.

 

The main question now: what about Sony’s Venom spinoff? Kurtzman is supposedly still attached to direct, but the consensus these days seems to confirm that Sony and Columbia’s enthusiasm for a Shared Spider-Man Universe is indeed (as The Wrap‘s report puts it) “losing momentum.†

 

Kurtzman has yet to officially bow out of directing Venom, but with this 2016 release date for The Mummy - and only the vague idea that Venom will shoot after Sinister Six – Kurtzman may decide to step away from the flailing Spidey-verse and focus on his new, old monsters. Stay tuned for updates as they surface.

 

The Mummy will be released on April 22, 2016.