More than 25 years on from the release of the original, Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz are in talks to star in another The Mummy movie.
The film will reportedly carry on from the legacy of 2001’s The Mummy Returns, but will, perhaps sensibly, pretend 2008’s The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor never existed. Let’s be honest, most of us have done that anyway.
Fraser and Weisz are now both in their mid-50s, but Weisz starred in an action role in Marvel’s Black Widow just a few years ago. And while Brendan Fraser isn’t quite in the shape he was in the 2000s, 2022’s The Whale gave his career a long-awaited resurgence — not to mention earning him a Best Actor Academy Award.
There’s more good news, too. This return to The Mummy is to be directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who go under the collective banner Radio Silence. They directed 2019’s bags-of-fun horror Ready or Not, as well as the rebooted 2023 Scream series movies.
This project is not to be mistaken with Lee Cronin's The Mummy project, which we heard was in the works last year. Just a few days ago, that project, which is a Blumhouse co-production, was renamed from The Mummy to The Resurrected.
That’s a good idea when we imagine this Lee Cronin flick, many will be a lot nastier than one with Fraser and Weisz attached. Cronin directed 2023’s highly effective but genuinely rather horrible Evil Dead Rise.
The original The Mummy, starring Fraser and Weisz, became the eighth most successful movie of 1999, raking in $417 million from an $80 million production budget.
It received moderate reviews, but went on to become something of a classic DVD for at-home rewatches.
Rachel Weisz was replaced by Maria Bello in 2008’s third movie, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, providing an excuse for disregarding it from the continuing timeline. There’s currently no word as to whether John Hannah, another highlight of the first two movies, will also return.
While there are loads of offshoots of Universal’s wider Mummy monster movie franchise, the one key film that was a spin-off of the Brendan Fraser sub-series was 2002's The Scorpion King. It took place thousands of years before 1999’s The Mummy, starred The Rock, and was somehow even cheesier than The Mummy.
The Mummy and The Mummy Returns are both available to stream from NOW at the time of writing if you fancy a rewatch.
Skip the search — follow Shortlist on Google News to get our best lists, news, features and reviews at the top of your feeds!
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
