MOVIE NEWS – Brendan Fraser has now confirmed what fans have been hoping to hear: a fourth The Mummy movie is officially in development, and this time the actor says they will not fall into the same trap as part three. He also reveals that he originally had very different plans before The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, but the Beijing Olympic Games pushed the franchise in another direction.

As many fans already know, a new Mummy adventure is on the way. Seventeen years after the disappointing release of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and with a poorly received Tom Cruise reboot in the middle, Universal Pictures has finally decided to listen to the audience and bring back the blend of action, adventure, fantasy and humor led by Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. Fraser recently commented on the project and used the opportunity to make a very clear promise to viewers.

“It’s time to give the fans what they so desperately want.”

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor walked away from the mysterious, exotic 1920s Egypt setting, with its ancient magic and resurrected mummies, that had defined the first two movies, and instead opted for a completely new backdrop. At the time, this was pitched as a way to make the saga more international and to avoid the criticism of being “just more of the same.” In practice, it never really clicked. By abandoning Imhotep and the desert, the movie lost much of what made the series feel like itself. Which naturally raises the question: was this really the kind of finale Brendan Fraser had in mind for the fantasy trilogy?

“The one I wanted to make never happened. The third one was a kind of… how should I put it? NBC had the rights to the Olympics that year (Beijing 2008). So they tied the two things together and we went to China. Shooting in Shanghai was an incredible experience. I am proud of the third film because I do think it works as a standalone story, separate from the earlier ones. We picked up the project, worked with a different team and did what we know how to do, giving it everything we had. But the movie I wanted to make is the one I am making now. I have been waiting for this call for 20 years. (…) It is time to give the fans what they have been wanting,” Fraser says, as quoted by AP News.

From his comments, it seems clear that both the actor and Universal want to move away from new, one-off settings – including the previously floated idea of a fourth installment with Antonio Banderas and Aztec themes – and steer the franchise back to its roots, with mummies, pyramids, and the desert back in the spotlight. If you are hoping for concrete story details, though, you will have to wait: nothing of the sort has been revealed yet, and there is no release date. What we do know is that the film will be directed by Lee Cronin, best known for his work on Evil Dead: Awakening (released internationally as Evil Dead Rise).

A Saga That Has Grossed More Than 1.25 Billion Dollars Worldwide

The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor have collectively earned around 1.254 billion dollars at the global box office, with each entry crossing the 400 million dollar mark on its own. The second film also spawned the spin-off The Scorpion King, which helped propel Dwayne Johnson into the front ranks of Hollywood and marked a turning point in his rise to blockbuster stardom.

Source: 3djuegos