Universal’s family-friendly reboot of old Mummy franchise was doing pretty well, it seemed, but just because it was making money and only 13 years old doesn’t mean it’s off limits from the recent reboot boom. The Mummy is returning to theaters, this time courtesy of Jon Spaihts, the co-writer of Ridley Scott’s upcoming Alien prequel, Prometheus.
Spaihts has told Variety that his new version of The Mummy will, like Prometheus, “go back to a franchise’s roots in dark, scary source material and simultaneously open it up to an epic scale we haven’t seen before.” No director or casting has been mentioned, although the producer of the previous franchise, Sean Daniel, will return in the same capacity.
Who is Jon Spaihts? Besides Prometheus, which we all have high hopes for but haven’t actually seen, his only credit to date is the sci-fi/horror thriller The Darkest Hour, which feels more in keeping with the previous Mummy franchise than Prometheus looks so far. It’s a straightforward, formulaic but reasonably entertaining film about energy-based aliens attacking the Earth, which comes out on DVD and Blu-ray next week. If you want to get a preview of Spaihts’ writing chops, that would be the place to go… for now.
Of course, the question remains whether we really need a Mummy reboot, and for once, the answer is probably “yes.” The previous franchise had its high points but quickly devolved into incomrpehensible goofiness or just plain generic silliness, and there’s plenty of life in the Egyptology horror concept that Stephen Sommers’ Indiana Jones-esque adventure flicks never even tapped into. Like the actual “horror” concept.
CraveOnline will be back with more Mummy news after figure out what a place like you is doing in a girl like this.
