Moving on from the not as awesome as the original TOTAL RECALL, Len Wiseman is locking down a deal to direct an updated version of THE MUMMY.
Jon Spaihts (PROMETHEUS) will be the one to write the script, but Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci pitched the project to Wiseman. They are looking to take the classic character to a scarier place than it was originally intended. Instead of dramatic and slow paced, the material will find its place in modern society.
“When I first heard Universal was relaunching this, that is the image that popped into my head, the period tale, the old monster, but when Bob and Alex pitched it, there was a great new take and approach, and a very different mummy as well,” Wiseman told me. “It’s a darker twist on the material, a scarier version.”
Kurtzman continued, “We’re reaching into the deep roots of The Mummy, which at its beating heart is a horror movie and then an action movie, and putting it into a context that is real and emotional. It’s still a four quadrant film but as a lot of recent movies have proven, audiences are hungry for more than they used to be. You can still have a family movie, an action movie that’s more grounded than these used to be. Without saying too much, we’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from Michael Crichton’s books, and how he ground fantastical sales in modern day science.”
“A lot of the work with Len has been about creating mythology, and I remember seeing Underworld and finding it a beautiful advancement of the genre. It was presented in this fresh, incredibly cool concept, but it never gave up its reverence for the mythology and that is what inspired us to meet with Len.”
Wiseman knows that there’s more to the character than filmmakers have allowed. Instead of painting this creature into a slow moving hollow monster, they intend to go deeper and explore the man inside the wraps.
“One of the things that interested me with this mummy is, he’s still in essence a man,” Wiseman said. “They haven’t turned his brain into a monster brain. He still has a personality and is very cunning and calculating. He’s a true character in any form, and in creature form, even if he is that staggering creature, it becomes more important that he’s a thinking, calculating person.”
THE MUMMY may hit theaters in Summer of 2014.
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