‘The Mummy’ Reboot May Have Its Director

Universal’s “reboot” of The Mummy, based on the Brendan Frazier-starring 1999 film based on a 1932 picture, may seem a little quick to anyone other than the folks at Sony who green lit The Amazing Spider-Man, but as it turns out, this new film looks to be more of an unrelated sequel. By which we mean to say that the new film will apparently be a modern telling, unlike its period piece cousins. That’s about all we’re getting on the plot, other than it’s going to be an action-adventure tentpole with horror elements” much like its predecessors, but it’s looking like the project is close to signing a director.

That director is Andy (Andres) Muschietti, whose breakout hit Mama (starring Jessica Chastain), released earlier this year, seems to have studios after him much like they were for Neill Blomkamp a couple years ago after District 9. The current script for the reboot/sequel/remake (whatever ends up being the most appropriate term) was written by Jon Spaihts (Prometheus), but it’s likely Muschietti, who also co-wrote the feature script form Mama based on his short film by the same name, will be pretty hands-on with the story.  We wouldn’t be shocked to see more of The Mummy‘s horror elements emphasized, so long as Universal goes along with it, which could help differentiate the film from other action-adventure treasure hunting flicks like Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider.

The film is backed by superproducer/writer tandem Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Kurtzman and Orci produced Now You See Me and Star Trek Into Darkness, both out earlier this year, and have worked on the upcoming Ender’s Game, Amazing Spider-Man 2, and the Tom Cruse sci-fi tentpole Edge of Tomorrow.