The director of “La Mumie”, Stephen Sommers, said he was insulted not to have been consulted for the 2017 reboot with Tom Cruise. Back on his comments without detour.
Last year, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his film La Mumie, Stephen Sommers granted an interview to the Hollywood Reporter in which he shared his memories but also a certain bitterness. The director of the 1999 success did not hide his disappointment at not even being contacted during the production of the 2017 reboot carried by Tom Cruise, accompanied by Annabelle Wallis (Peaky Blinders), Sofia Boutella (Kingsman) and Russell Crowe.
As a reminder, The mummy 1999 version-With the unforgettable trio Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz and John Hannah-had met with immense world success, bringing more than $ 417 million to the box office (which would today be around 786 million taking into account inflation). A nice jackpot for Universal, especially with an initial budget estimated at 80 million. The consequences, as well as the various derivatives, had not been able to find the same radiance.
Universal Pictures
The saga The mummy is made up of three films with Brendan Fraser :: The mummy (1999), The return of the mummy (2001) – with The Rock in the role of King Scorpion – and the mummy: the tomb of the Emperor Dragon (2008), in which Rachel Weisz Don't play. Maria Bello, Michelle Yeoh and Jet Li are there.
An insult for the director
In his interview, Stephen Sommers came back without detour to his exclusion from the reboot project carried out by Alex Kurtzman with Tom Cruise in 2017.
“” “I was not contacted. In fact, I even felt insulted, because neither the writers nor Alex Kurtzman contacted me“He said.
Universal Pictures
He also mentioned the third film directed by Rob Cohen, in which he had chosen to participate as a producer not to encroach on the work of the new director: “I contact people if I intend to take someone's business. On the third film, directed by Rob [Cohen]it was a bit of my baby. I didn't want to walk on her feet, so I helped produce it.»
On the other hand, he had no connection with the 2017 reboot. “But I had nothing to do with that of Tom Cruise. They never contacted me or called. I was doing something else, and it's not like I was sitting crying. I just think it's a simple courtesy.»
A failed reboot and a buried shared universe
The “Universal Monsters”, namely the emblematic monsters of Universal, have always occupied a unique position in the studio's famous catalog and have served as a source of inspiration for many remakes over the years.
Universal had great ambitions concerning them by relating The mummy with Tom Cruise. Since Dracula Untold in 2014, the studio was indeed planning to create its own shared Marvel universe, called “Dark Universe”, bringing together the famous monsters of the Universal Catalog: Dracula, Frankenstein, the invisible man, the Loup-Garou … and even Doctor Jekyll, embodied in the film by Russell Crowe.
But the project fell into the water. Despite the presence of a world star, the 2017 film did not have the expected success: with an estimated production budget at $ 125 million – not to mention a marketing campaign at more than 100 million – The mummy only generated 409 million in the world. A result far below expectations.
Universal Pictures
Shortly after, Universal paused his remake projects, notably that of the fiancée de Frankenstein, then in the pre-production phase.
“” “None of us want to go too fast to respect an release date when this film is special and we need time to improve it”Said the studio in a press release (via Deadline).
If the studio therefore evoked the need to take the time to do things well, the message, however, was clear: the “Dark Universe” was in a standstill.
Recognize failure
In November 2017, the main architects of “Dark Universe”, Alex Kurtzman And Chris Morgan, discreetly withdrew from the project. Morgan returned to the Fast & Furious franchise, while Kurtzman focused on Star Trek: Discovery.
In February 2020, against the Hollywood Reporter, Donna Langley, CEO of Universal, recognized the failure with lucidity: “We tried to intermingle our monsters and it missed. We realized that these characters are indelible for a reason […] And that the world has certainly not asked for a shared universe of classical monsters. So we came back and created a different approach: the filmmaker first, the budget afterwards.»
The studio then decided to opt for this new approach: to give more freedom to directors and adapt budgets to each creative vision. A lesson learned from this experience a little too quickly mummified.
The first two components of the mummy, as well as the reboot with Tom Cruise, can be found in streaming on Prime Video. To review the third component, direction the VOD.
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