It is 25 years sinceStephen SommersrevivedThe Mummyin Brendan Fraser’s 1999 action blockbuster. While discussing the film’s anniversary withThe Hollywood Reporter, the director touched on his thoughts on another reboot of the franchise – 2017’s Tom Cruise box office disaster. Although it was not his movie, Sommers revealed some candid thoughts on the fact that he was never contacted by anyone involved in the movie as a “common courtesy.”
While 1999’sThe Mummywas successful enough to warrant two direct sequels, an animated series, and a prequel Scorpion King spin-off movie, Universal’s attempts to kick-start its own universe of classic monsters with2017’sThe Mummysucceeded only in bringing the Dark Universe plan crashing down after just the one movie. Although it was probably not a project that Sommers would really have wanted to put his name to, the director did explain that he was “kind of insulted” to not have had any contact at all with either the writers or director Alex Kurtzman during the reboot’s production. He said:
“Actually, I was kind of insulted because the writers and director of that Tom Cruise one, no one ever contacted me. I contact people if I was going to take over somebody’s thing. The third one, which Rob [Cohen] directed, it’s kind of my baby. I didn’t want to step on his toes, so I helped produce it. But I had nothing to do with the Tom Cruise one. They never contacted me or called me. I was doing other things, and it’s not like I sat crying. I just think it’s common courtesy.”
Sommers Stepped Down From Directing the Third Brendan Fraser Mummy Movie
While Stephen Sommers directed the first two of Brendan Fraiser’sMummymovies, he chose not to helm the third installment, entitledThe Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.The film was seen as the weakest of the trilogy– and actually scored lower Rotten Tomatoes scores from both critics and audiences than the Tom Cruise movie. Sommers still remained on the project as a producer, but noted that even before the film headed into production he was well aware that making a third movie was always going to be tricky.
“I didn’t want to do the third movie because I just felt like the first two really came together,” he said. “I’m really proud of both of them. Third ones are just very hard. So I knew right off, I didn’t want to direct it, and Rachel wasn’t going to be in it. We always kind of joke that the third one is called The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, but it really doesn’t have a mummy in it. That’s when NBC bought Universal, and NBC was doing the Olympics in China. They’re like, ‘Is there any way you could do a Mummy movie in China?'”
The Mummy at 25: How the Movie Almost Didn’t Get Made
From development hell to hellish shooting conditions to its lead star almost dying, 1999’s The Mummy came very close to never happening.
Despite the way Brendan Fraser’sMummymovies came to an end in a disappointing way in 2008, whispers ofa possible fourth moviehave recently been stirred up again thanks to Fraser’s return to the spotlight in the last few years. While the likelihood of that happening is quite slim, Universal’s recent run of monster reimaginings will no doubt work its way back toThe Mummyat some point in the future.
The Mummy (1999)is currently available to stream onPeacock.
