The Mummy Director Felt 'Insulted' By Tom Cruise's 2017 Reboot For A Good Reason

2017's "The Mummy" was a major box office flop, even with an A-list actor in Tom Cruise starring and a massive marketing budget promising the start of a new Dark Universe from Universal Pictures. The movie was seemingly cursed from the get-go, with a trailer leaking without music and sound effects before its release, and a group picture of the supposed cast filled with major Hollywood talent teasing a shared universe that never came to be. Ultimately, the newer versions failed to capture the same lightning in a bottle and success as the original beloved films of the same name starring Brendan Fraser.

Stephen Sommers, director of 1999's "The Mummy," spoke with The Hollywood Reporter for an article celebrating the film's 25th anniversary. The director clarified that he was never contacted about the 2019 film, nor was he approached about consulting on it: "No. Actually, I was kind of insulted because the writers and director [Alex Kurtzman] of that Tom Cruise one, no one ever contacted me," Sommers said in the interview. "I contact people if I was going to take over somebody's thing. The third one, which Rob [Cohen] directed, it's kind of my baby. I didn't want to step on his toes, so I helped produce it. But I had nothing to do with the Tom Cruise one. They never contacted me or called me. I was doing other things, and it's not like I sat crying. I just think it's common courtesy."

Brendan Fraser, who starred with Rachel Weisz in the original "The Mummy" trilogy, has expressed openness to rejoining the franchise for a potential fourth installment under the condition that it will still be fun: "Just gotta say, I know how hard it is to make that movie," Fraser said at Fan Expo Canada in 2019 (via Comic Book). "I tried to do it three times, and the essential ingredient is fun. You gotta remember to have fun. So if there's a fun way to approach it again, I'm all in." Fraser joked he'd love to have the job in a later interview with Deadline.

However, director Stephen Sommers, while admitting wanting to work with the talented "The Mummy" team again, said there weren't any ongoing talks about a new film starring Fraser at the moment: "Not that I know," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "All the people at Universal are new after I left. I don't really know them, and they haven't got a hold of me, so I don't know what's in their heads. At the same time, it would have to be something really special. Of course, I would work with all of those actors again." So, while it appears the original forces behind the smash-hit trilogy are game to make a fourth film, and while there seems to be demand for a revival of the original franchise, audiences might have to wait a long time before a new installment of "The Mummy" comes to fruition.