Alex Kurtzman is to write and direct a reboot of The Mummy, in a move by Universal Pictures to create a cinematic universe featuring all of their classic movie monsters, which is being develeoped by the studio, Kurtzman and Chris Morgan. The Mummy, written by Kurtman, Roberto Orci and Jon Spaihts will be released April 22nd, 2016 (See Update). The movie is said to follow Stephen Sommers adaptation of the franchise in style, being an action, comedy and dark fantasy movie with horror underpinnings, but is reported to be set in the present day with a new line-up of characters, although whether or not Imhotep will return as the antagonistic title character is unknown.
"Come To Mummy"... never have those words felt so wrong, 'til now!
Universals co-president of production Jeff Kirschenbaum:
“Over the course of developing The Mummy, Alex has demonstrated such clarity and passion about this character and mythology. He knows why The Mummy has fascinated us for so long and how to bring that into an inventive, incredible new adventure. It became obvious that he is the perfect choice to be not only one of the narrative engineers of this new vision but its director as well.”
Of the Mummy franchises previous incarnations - the original series starring Boris Karloff, the Hammer Horror series starring Christopher Lee and the more recent incarnation starring Arnold Vosloo and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson - the first two were primarily horror movies in theme, with the most recent adaptation leaning more towards, as already mentioned, action, comedy and dark fantasy.
Universal Pictures' other movie monster properties are adaptations of classic horror characters such as Dracula, Van Helsing, The Wolfman, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein's creature, the Invisible Man, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and the creature from the Black Lagoon, among many, many others.
UPDATE: After unveiling their plans to reboot The Mummy and create a monstrous cinematic universe, Universal have since moved to release date of the reboot to, unsurprsingly, a later and more viable date of June 24th, 2016.
Thanks to THR for the news!
