“The Mummy” will rise again with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz on board to return to the franchise for a new sequel…
“The Mummy” will rise again.
Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz are set to return for a new sequel based on the smash hit original film from 1999 with Radio Silence — the team of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who made the horror-comedy “Ready or Not” as well as the recent sequels “Scream 5” and “Scream 6” — set to direct the movie.
The film isn’t a reboot or a remake but rather a direct sequel reportedly set after the events of “The Mummy” and “The Mummy Returns,” while apparently ignoring the third film “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” where Maria Bello replaced Weisz in a leading role.
Of course “The Mummy” was a massive hit for Universal when it was released in 1999 with the film earning more than $422 million at the worldwide box office. The sequel “The Mummy Returns,” which featured Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in his first ever acting role outside of WWE, also earned more than $435 million at the box office.
The original film directed by Stephen Sommers took the classic story from the Universal Monsters and put an action-adventure spin on it with Fraser playing treasure hunter Rick O’Connell, who happens upon a lost city in Egypt where a fortune is allegedly hidden but the site is also cursed thanks to an ancient priest who was carrying on an affair with the Pharaoh’s mistress before they murder him after being discovered together. The priest is captured and mummified before being buried alive and centuries later O’Connell and a plucky librarian named Evie end up returning to the city where they accidentally unleash the evil from its tomb.
The film received overwhelmingly positive reviews and remains a favorite among fans to this day.
Fraser has always expressed interest in potentially returning to the franchise after his career was revived with a role in Darren Aronofsky’s film “The Whale” that earned him an Academy Award for Best Actor.
Now he’ll return for “The Mummy” sequel with Weisz also coming back for the first time since “The Mummy Returns” was released in 2001.
In recent years, Weisz has starred in the gender swapped Amazon horror series “Dead Ringers” and the Marvel film “Black Widow.”
There’s no word yet on who else from the original cast could potentially return after Arnold Vosloo played the evil priest Imhotep resurrected as the Mummy, John Hannah, who portrayed Evie’s scheming brother Jonathan and Oded Fehr as Ardeth, a true believer of the original Pharaoh tasked with keeping Imhotep locked away for the rest of eternity.
David Coggeshall, who actually worked on the MTV “Scream” TV series,” wrote the script for the new film.
It’s not clear how quickly production on something like this might start, although it might not be long with the Radio Silence team already wrapped on their most recent project with the sequel “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come.” As for Fraser, he’s got a new comedy-drama coming out soon called “Rental Family” and also a new war film called “Pressure” where he plays former president Dwight Eisenhower.
