THE MUMMY returns! Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz in talks to star in SCREAM Duo-directed sequel
It turns out that the rumors about The MummyThe return was true!
Earlier this week the news was announced: Rise of the Evil Dead director Lee Cronin’s point of view The Mummy had been renamed The Resurrected. Now we may know why. Deadline (via FearHQ.com) revealed that Universal Pictures, the same studio behind the Cronin reboot, was in talks with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz to resurrect The Mummy franchise from the 90s and 2000s.
The actors will reprise their roles as Rick O’Connell and Evelyn O’Connell respectively.
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett of Radio Silence (Shout, Abigail) are expected to direct the film from a screenplay by David Coggeshall (The deliverance). Franchise veteran Sean Daniel would produce alongside William Sherak, James Vanderbilt and Paul Neinstein of Project X Entertainment.
Plot details are, rightly, being kept under wraps. There have been rumors for some time that Fraser could return to lead another Mummy movie, while we also heard chatter about Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson reprising his role as the Scorpion King in an upcoming project. Could this be it?
Fraser and Weisz split the screen in half Mummy movies: 1999 The Mummy and the years 2001 The Mummy returns. Stephen Sommers directed them, and both grossed over $400 million worldwide (adjusted for inflation, that’s almost $800 million each).
The films were so popular that the theme park attractions and a spin-off, The Scorpion Kingfollow up. While not a critical darling, Rob Cohen’s The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor in 2008, it was another success, earning $403 million, even though Fraser played without Weisz.
From there, the franchise remained on the shelves until a reboot in 2017, The Mummywith Tom Cruise. Intended to launch Universal’s Dark Universe, it was a failure with fans and critics, and the idea was abandoned, even after grossing a respectable $409 million.
As the trade explains, “Returning to The Mummy franchise makes perfect sense for Universal, given the veritable wave of millennial nostalgia for all things Fraser and his Mummy films, in particular. This built-in fandom would be an asset at a time when the studio is doing poorly at the box office with its attempts at modern monster films, including Abigail, directed by the Radio Silence duo.”
1999s The Mummy is a thrilling, suspenseful and horror epic about an expedition of treasure-seeking explorers in the Sahara Desert in 1925. Upon stumbling upon an ancient tomb, the hunters unwittingly unleashed a 3,000-year-old legacy of terror, embodied in the vengeful reincarnation of an Egyptian priest condemned to an eternity as the undead.
Are you excited to see The Mummy back?
