With Brendan Fraser hot off his Oscar win, Universal Pictures‘ The Mummy franchise from writer-director Stephen Sommers is back in the zeitgeist as the 1999 original returns to theaters this week in honor of its 25th anniversary.
It’s been well over a decade since Rick O’Connell fought against the supernatural forces of evil in Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, which took the swashbuckling adventurer to China. Sommers, who only served as a producer on the third outing, is very much open to the idea of returning to the franchise, albeit with one major condition: a good chunk of the action must take place in Egypt.
“To me, it has to be [in Egypt],” he exclusively tells SYFY WIRE during a conversation about the production of 2004’s Van Helsing. “It doesn’t have to all be in Egypt. That’s why with the sequel … the beginning starts off in Ancient Egypt and then we go to London for the whole first act. And it’s very adventurous. [I thought] London at night and all this stuff could be very adventurous and fun, but we have to get back to Egypt. Like Tarzan movies, you want him to be in the jungle.”
He later continues: “That’s just my personal opinion, but that’s the thing. I just love adventure movies. So yes, if I get a third Mummy movie, you’d have to have it in [Egypt]. I don’t know what percent, I’d have to think about it, but yeah, it has that feel.”
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When asked how likely it is for him to reunite with Fraser for another Mummy chapter, Sommers lets out a small chuckle. “No one’s mentioned it to me,” he admits, offering up heaps of praise for Fraser, whose recent Hollywood comeback — propelled by his now Academy Award-winning performance in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale — could not be more deserved.
“I’m so happy for him and so proud of him. I love to see him win. He was a dream. Him and Hugh Jackman as my lead guys? You just can’t get nicer and more hard-working [actors]. That’s what you want because these movies are [hard]. Van Helsing was a 110-day shoot, which is just over six months. It’s six months, seven days a week, six of those days will be 14-hour days. So you really don’t want someone who’s whiny or a jerk. You don’t want any jerks around and that was so nice to have all those people. They were just great.”
Okay, let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that Sommers can get his OG cast back together. Who are they fighting? Would Arnold Vosloo return as the corrupted priest Imhotep, or would the filmmaker opt for a different antagonist?
“I don’t know. I’d probably do a different [villain],” Sommers muses. “I love Arnold Vosloo, he’s one of my best friends. I talk to Arnold all the time, but I think you’d have to do something [different]. Bringing him back for the sequel, it really worked and made sense and the rules worked. But sometimes, you just have to change things up a little bit. So I don’t know, I haven’t really thought about that.”
Click here to pick up tickets for the 25th anniversary re-release. The animated series inspired by The Mummy that ran on Kids’ WB between 2001 and 2003 is currently streaming on Peacock. All three Mummy movies — and the Tom Cruise reboot — are now available from Universal Pictures.
