Late last year, the news hit that Universal Pictures was planning on resurrecting their classic monsters for a collection of new movies in what is being referred to as a Universal Monsters shared universe. Even though Dracula Untold did not reap the box office rewards the company was looking for, it is still moving forward and the movie to introduce this new universe will be Alex Kurtsman’s present day take on The Mummy.
Originally slated to hit theaters in 2016, the project has been pushed back a year, giving the director more time to prepare the story and to ruminate on main character Tyler Colt’s rumored Navy SEAL status. In his recent conversation with /Film, Kurtzman talked about the challenges of adapting these classic characters into a bigger shared cinematic universe:
“Because I started in television and have been in television for a long time now, you approach television from a much more serialized longview place. So you think about not just what is the one story I’m telling, but how do I take this story and tell it over many seasons? That’s obviously started to be what’s happening with movies but the challenge is, you have to deliver each movie. Each movie has to be satisfying. You can’t be so serialized that if you didn��t see the movie that came before, you’re really lost. The benefit of being able to exist in a shared universe world is that you can take more time to develop your characters. You can put them in situations that don’t necessarily resolve right away. That’s really exciting. It means that you don’t just have to have a beginning, a middle and an end in which everything is resolved. Obviously as a writer, that’s a lot of fun because it gives you a lot of room to grow.”
From the looks of things, Kurtzman — who will also helm the Venom movie — has his work cut out for him. While he’s mostly known for his writing and producing work on TV, the man does not have a whole lot of experience as a director. Pushing The Mummy back to 2017 should hopefully help both Kurtzman and Universal find their footing and resurrect these classic movie monsters in the best possible way.
(Via /Film)
