Mummy reboot writer-director Alex Kurtzmann has called the Universal Dark Universe launchpad his biggest personal and commercial failure.
Writer-director Alex Kurtzman recently called his The Mummy Reboot his biggest failure. Released in 2017, Tom Cruise-led Monster-Horror Universal aims to create a launchpad for their new Dark Universe franchise, featuring the return of classic monster characters such as Frankenstein, Dracula and Wolf Man. Due to The Mummy’s combined critique and box office failure, the shared world for stand-alone movies was quickly canceled.
In 1932, when Boris Karloff played the role of the resurrected Mummy Imhotep, Kurtzmann tried to revive the franchise that first frightened the audience. In the spring of 1999, IP re-dominated the box office with a reboot of the same name in the role of Brendan Fraser’s adventurer Rick O’Connell. With the bar set high, the pressure on Kurtzman to reboot was too much. The latest version features Tom Cruise in the role of Sergeant Nick Morton, who accidentally wakes up Princess Ahmet (Sophia Butella) from her prison tomb. Dr. Russell Crowe. By introducing a secret society called Prodigium under the leadership of Henry Jekyll, he laid the foundation for the introduction of a huge catalog of monsters in the Universal Library.
In a recent interview with Playlist for his podcast Binging, Kurtzman described the failure of The Mummy Reboot as the biggest failure of his career. During the podcast with Kurtzmann and his creative partner Jenny Lumet, the conversation turned to Kurtzmann’s huge flop support, where he described both personal and professional defeats that filled him with sadness. Read below what Kurtzmann said about the experience.
The director further explained that he was very grateful for the experience and the mistakes he made as he claimed that this made him a tougher, more flexible and more focused filmmaker. Kurtzman revealed that The Mummy Reboot was a “gift” that made it clear he would never say no or stop working on a project he didn’t think would work. He further compared all the other artists who have done great work by enduring big shocks.
Following the failure of Kurtzmann and Universal in the Dark Universe, the director achieved great success by reviving the Star Trek brand through a series of popular shows such as Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, and the upcoming Star Trek: Strange. James T. Christopher Pike, head of the USS Enterprise, will see the new world before Kirk takes over the ship’s commanding role. Although Mummy’s failure destroyed many of the planned Dark Universe entries, such as David Cope’s Bride of Frankenstein, the popularity of 2020’s The Invisible Man revived interest in the shared world. In 2020, Chris McKay signed on to direct Rainfield, a horror-comedy about Count Dracula’s hens that leaves its owner’s side to pursue his beloved. With Universal taking another chance on a new take on one of their classic monster characters, the resurrection of the dark universe can be hoped for even after the failure of The Mummy.