Claiming that the plot will have nothing to do with the Brendan Fraser franchise, Wiseman dishes that his new version will be more of an epic horror instead of action.
- Dec 15, 2012
AceShowbiz - It's been a few months since it was announced that Len Wiseman was tapped to direct "The Mummy" reboot for Universal Pictures. Sharing a little update on the upcoming project, the "Total Recall" remake helmer opens up about his viewpoint on the reboot, which will be a completely new mythology that has nothing to do with the previous versions.
"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," so the husband of Kate Beckinsale tells MovieWeb, "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."
"The Mummy is one of Universal's long standing, iconic characters, well before the Brendan Fraser movies... This is such a different thing," he continues. "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..."
While the Brendan Fraser "Mummy" films were mostly action-oriented and set in the desert of Egypt, Wiseman says that his new take will be more of a horror pic set in present day America. "It's horror," he claims. "It's 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."
The original "The Mummy" was released in 1932 and was helmed by Karl Freun. In 1999, it was remade by Stephen Sommers and successfully collected $415 million worldwide. Its 2001 sequel "The Mummy Returns" scored a bigger success by grossing $433 million worldwide.
In 2002, Chuck Russell made a spin-off for the series, "The Scorpion King", which starred Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. However, the film couldn't best its predecessors since it only took in $165 million worldwide. The last film in the franchise, "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor", was unleashed in 2008 and grossed $401 million worldwide.
