The age of remakes, reboots, reinventions, and reimaginings is clearly never drawing to a close anytime in the near or even distant future, but thankfully very few of them have proven to be as horrendously bad as Tom Cruise’s stab at The Mummy.
Intended as the launchpad for the Dark Universe, the big budget fantasy actioner may have crossed $400 million at the global box office, but it was absolutely savaged by critics and audiences alike, to such an extent that even director Alex Kurtzman admitted he’d dropped the ball in spectacular fashion on his feature-length directorial debut.
A cursory glance at the internet would make it clear that the only way people are going to accept another outing for the bandaged Egyptian nightmare is if Brendan Fraser’s comeback is completed by a fourth outing as Rick O’Connell, because no amount of middling sequels or disastrous retellings can take the shine off Stephen Sommers’ 1999 classic.
However, another filmmaker has thrown their hat into the ring, and before you begin to panic – it’s a talented one. Speaking to Collider, Call Me by Your Name, Suspiria, and Bones and All director Luca Guadagnino states his case for a full-blown horror version.
“I think it would be amazing to do something about The Mummy. It’s a rotten body in rotten bandages, so what’s inside is [as] interesting as what’s outside. It should be very scary and very, very terminal. It should be a little movie but with a lot of depth and very scary.”
Do we need yet another new spin on The Mummy? Of course not, don’t be ridiculous. Would we be equal parts curious and excited to see what a talent like Guadagnino could bring to the story? Well, that’s an entirely different question, although we’re split on whether we want to see it answered.
