Film opinion: News of ‘The Mummy 4’ with original cast warms my Millennial heart
Last week, after years of hopes and dreams, reports emerged that The Mummy 4 is in active development with original cast members Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz.
It marks another beautiful turn in the renaissance of Fraser and marks a franchise return for Weisz.
Film News Blitz’s Dan Lawrence hails this incredible development.
‘The Mummy 4’ is in development
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, known collectively as Radio Silence, are slated to direct the fourth instalment of The Mummy franchise.
Their credits include some horrific credentials, including 2019’s Ready or Not and 2022’s revival of the Scream franchise.
A script is being penned by David Coggeshall (The Family Plan films, The Deliverance) with Sean Daniel returning to the franchise to produce alongside William Sherak, James Vanderbilt, and Paul Neinstein of Project X Entertainment.
Moreover, Fraser and Weisz will also serve as executive producers, lending some creative control to the project.
The story of ‘The Mummy’ franchise
Throughout the 1930s and ‘50s, Universal pumped out a slew of Mummy movies starring legends such as Boris Karloff as the titular titan of fear.
In 1999, the franchise was reimagined as an action-adventure, starring Fraser and Weisz as Rick and Evelyn, who fall for each other amidst a terrifying tussle against the fearsome mummy Imhotep.
The film was a sensation and grossed over $409 million worldwide, cementing Fraser’s star status and sending Weisz well on her way to having an incredible career.
Two years later, The Mummy Returns saw the franchise take in another $435 million worldwide.
Fraser returned for one more instalment, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, with Maria Bello taking Weisz’s role.
Once again, more than $400 million was grossed, but a Rotten Tomatoes score of 13% spoke to a franchise now on the wane.
Fraser stepped away from the Hollywood spotlight, and the franchise was put on ice.
Amid the wave of franchise mastery by Marvel Studios, Universal revived The Mummy in a 2017 film with Tom Cruise, part of a doomed plan to launch a series of interconnected monster movies.
That attempt was a tragically rare misstep by Cruise, and completely curtailed Universal’s plans to weave in its catalogue of creators and monsters into a series of films.
Bringing joy back to cinemas
Fraser has shot back into the Hollywood consciousness as an Oscar winner, and his gentle persona has endeared him to new fans and re-endeared him to his adoring fans who watched him rise to fame in the 1990s.
The Mummy and its sequels exemplified his status as the charismatic leading man, and his on-screen chemistry with Weisz made them an extraordinary double-act.
Together, they put joy into cinemas and starred in pure popcorn flicks of escapism.
For Millennials, this dynamic duo returning for The Mummy 4 is nostalgia at its finest.
The first two films were among my first DVDs, and I imagine they were for many, many more.
To see Fraser and Weisz up to mischief once more, fighting the mystical and menacing, will be a downright delight.
It will warm my Millennial heart.
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