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Len Wiseman to direct "darker, scarier" Mummy reboot - SciFiNow

Len Wiseman to direct “darker, scarier” Mummy reboot

Total Recall’s Len Wiseman and Star Trek’s Alex Kurtzman talk about The Mummy reboot.

The Mummy 1932 Boris Karloff

The Mummy 1932 Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff in the 1932’s The Mummy, available on Blu-ray from 1 October 2012.

Total Recall and Underworld director Len Wiseman is currently in talks to direct an all-new version of The Mummy, currently being developed by producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci for a 2014 release.

Speaking to Deadline, Wiseman said, “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. It’s a darker twist on the material, a scarier version.

“One of the things that interested me with this mummy is, he’s still in essence a man. 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.”

Alex Kurtzman added, “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 grounded fantastical tales in modern-day science.

And as for why the pair picked Len Wiseman…

“A lot of the work with Len has been about creating mythology,” explained Kurtzman, “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.”

The original 1932 Universal horror movie The Mummy is available on Blu-ray from 1 October 2012, pre-order it now from Amazon.co.uk priced £10.