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Total Recall director Len Wiseman is currently in talks with Universal Pictures to direct the Mummy reboot that is being produced by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. I think this would be a great project for Wiseman who also directed the Underworld films. A movie like this seems to fit his storytelling style. In an interview with Deadline he mentioned that this would be a darker and scarier version of the franchise.
When I first heard Universal was relaunching this, that is the image that popped into my head, the period tale, the old monster, but when Bob and Alex pitched it, there was a great new take and approach, and a very different mummy as well. It’s a darker twist on the material, a scarier version.
He went on to talk about what drew him to the project saying,
One of the things that interested me with this mummy is, he’s still in essence a man. They haven’t turned his brain into a monster brain. He still has a personality and is very cunning and calculating. He’s a true character in any form, and in creature form, even if he is that staggering creature, it becomes more important that he’s a thinking, calculating person.
It seems like they are finally going to do a solid Mummy movie. I loved the original, but didn't really care for Stephen Sommers' remake. Apparently this version is going to be a modern take on the classic horror franchise. Kurtzman explains how they plan on tackling the film saying,
We’re reaching into the deep roots of The Mummy, which at its beating heart is a horror movie and then an action movie, and putting it into a context that is real and emotional. It’s still a four-quadrant film but as a lot of recent movies have proven, audiences are hungry for more than they used to be. You can still have a family movie, an action movie that’s more grounded than these used to be. Without saying too much, we’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from Michael Crichton’s books, and how he ground fantastical tales in modern-day science.
He went on to talk about Wiseman and why they approached him about directing the film,
A lot of the work with Len has been about creating mythology, and I remember seeing Underworld and finding it a beautiful advancement of the genre. It was presented in this fresh, incredibly cool concept, but it never gave up its reverence for the mythology and that is what inspired us to meet with Len.
Jon Spaihts is currently writing the script and the studio hopes to release it in 2014, so they are obviously looking to get it into production fast. I like the idea of Wiseman directing this movie, it's got a great team developing it, and it's looking like this could turn out to be a solid Mummy film.
What do you think of Wiseman possibly taking on the Mummy?
