‘The Mummy’, one of the best films of the 90s, has recently returned to North American cinemas on the occasion of its 25th anniversary as what it is: an unforgettable adventure film that swept cinemas, “depreciated by critics, loved by the public.” However, its 2017 reboot starring Tom Cruise did not have the same reception, and is considered one of the biggest failures of the ‘Mission: Impossible’ actor’s career. The setback was such that it destroyed an entire shared universe of horror films, Universal’s ‘Dark Universe’, which had just announced continuations starring stars such as Johnny Depp (‘The Invisible Man’), Javier Bardem (‘ Frankenstein’) and Angelina Jolie (‘Bride of Frankenstein’).
Stephen Sommers, director of the 1999 film starring Brendan Fraser and its 2001 sequel, ‘The Mummy Returns’, was also not very happy with the new version. In an interview with THR on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of ‘The Mummy’, Sommers charged against the reboot directed by Alex Kurtzman with some resentment for not having been contacted.
“I felt a little insulted, because not even the writers [David Koepp, Christopher McQuarrie y Dylan Kussmany] nor the director [Alex Kurtzman] That version of Tom Cruise never contacted me,” Sommers said. “I contact people if I’m going to take care of someone’s things. The third ‘The Mummy’ movie [‘La tumba del Emperador Dragón’]which Rob directed [Cohen], it’s like my baby. I didn’t want to step on his toes, so I helped produce it. But I had nothing to do with Tom Cruise. They never contacted me or called me. He was doing other things, not that I was crying, but I just think it’s common courtesy.”
Sommers also explained why he didn’t personally direct ‘The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor:
“I didn’t want to do the third movie because I felt like the first two fit perfectly together,” he said. “I’m very proud of both of them. The third ones are very difficult, so I knew immediately that I didn’t want to direct it, and even more so when I found out that Rachel [Weisz] I wasn’t going to be in it. We always joke that the movie is called ‘The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor’, but there’s actually no mummy in it. At the time, NBC had just bought Universal and had the rights to the Olympics in China, so they thought, ‘How could we make a ‘Mummy’ movie in China?'”
‘The Mummy’ (the good one, Fraser’s) can currently be seen in Spain in the Netflix film catalog, Amazon Prime Video, Movistar Plus+ and Filmin.
Fran Chico is an expert in cinema and series, specialized in cultural dissemination and film criticism. He is a recognized critic on Rotten Tomatoes and Filmaffinity. Although his favorite genre is horror, the same thing tells you about the new blockbuster from Marvel’s MCU and about an auteur film to claim from the festival circuit. There is no series from Netflix, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video or Disney+ that escapes its radar, delving into the catalog of each platform to recommend and analyze its best content.
Fran has been writing in Fotogramas for more than a year, but his beginnings date back almost two decades ago in film forums and blogs such as Planeta Claqueta or Moviementarios. He was founder and part of the board of directors of the digital publication of film criticism and analysis Revista Mutaciones and a member of the Association of Cinematographic Informants of Spain (AICE), the organization that awards the Feroz Awards, as well as a voter for the Blogos de Oro al indie movies. After completing the Master of Film Criticism at the Madrid Film School (ECAM) taught by Caimán Cuadernos de Cine, he has collaborated and/or covered film festivals such as San Sebastián, Sitges and Filmadrid as a specialized press for more than 10 years, along the way interviewing relevant directors, actors and actresses from the national industry such as Penélope Cruz, Carlos Saura, Ana de Armas, José Luis Cuerda or José Sacristán and internationally such as James Wan, Edgar Wright or Dario Argento.
His knowledge and experience have led him to be a film video blogger for Fnac Spain and director and host of the podcast Holocausto Zinéfago, with more than 150 programs broadcast and available in which cinema and humor are mixed from a unique and original.
