“The Mummy” franchise has been revived.
A sequel is officially happening over at Universal — Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz are set to return in their respective roles. If you remember, the franchise abruptly ended after the third film; 2008’s “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” budgeted at $175 million, barely made a profit.
Furthermore, Radio Silence’s Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett will direct from a script by David Coggeshall (“The Family Plan”). Word is that this fourth film will “disregard the events” in ‘Tomb of the Dragon’ — they’re pretending it never existed:
The 1999 original was written and directed by Stephen Sommers and was a remake of the 1932 film of the same name. Despite mixed reviews, it was a commercial success and grossed over $416 million worldwide. The film’s success spawned two sequels: 2001’s “The Mummy Returns,” which also grossed over $400 million, and 2008’s “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.”
The franchise itself is an Indiana Jones–style adventure, blending action, romance, and horror within a period setting. The film follows Fraser as a daring treasure hunter who travels to Egypt in the 1920s with a librarian, played by Weisz, only to inadvertently awaken a supernaturally powerful high priest.
“The Mummy” was an incredible success for Universal on home video, selling 7 million units on VHS and 1 million on DVD, making it that year’s best-selling live-action VHS and the second best-selling DVD. This all resulted in Universal grossing over $1 billion in home video sales. It seemed as though everyone you knew owned a copy of this movie.
Fraser is very much in the comeback phase of his career. In 2023, he won an Oscar for “The Whale” and has been piling up projects ever since. He was briefly in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” and can next be seen in Hikari’s fall-fest hit “Rental Family.”
Meanwhile, Radio Silence has a horror-heavy filmography, which includes “Ready or Not,” “Abigail,” “Scream” (2022), and “Scream VI.” They recently wrapped a “Ready or Not” sequel and are attached to direct an Art Bell Biopic. In terms of budget, “The Mummy 4” will be the biggest film of their career so far.
Paul Greengrass’ "The Uprising," starring Andrew Garfield, opened to $3.2M from 2,068 theaters this weekend. Yikes. The budget hasn’t been disclosed, but is said to be in the $20-$30M range.