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Brendan Fraser Open To Fourth ‘Mummy’ Film, Says Tom Cruise’s Reboot Wasn’t Fun
Fraser’s new film, ‘The Whale,’ will be in theaters on December 9th.
Brendan Fraser hasn’t returned to the land of the undead since 2008’s The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor but now says he’s open to revisiting the franchise. He made his intention on the film series known in a Variety cover story on the making of The Whale. Before 1999, Fraser had starred in numerous movies, including Encino Man and Oscar-winning dramas Gods and Monsters.
But he found his defining role in the Universal Studios blockbuster “The Mummy,” playing Rick O’Connell.
“I don’t know how it would work. But I’d be open to it if someone came up with the right conceit,” Fraser said in his interview with Variety.
Following the 2008 franchise, Universal rebooted the series in 2017 with Tom Cruise. But it received negative reviews, prompting Universal to cancel the Dark Universe initiative, a series of linked movies focused on classic Universal horror monsters. When asked what he thought of the Tom Cruise film, Fraser said the film didn’t kick off because it overemphasized the horror ingredient of the Mummy.
He shared about the Tom Cruise film: “It is hard to make that movie. The ingredient that we had going for our mummy, which I didn’t see in that film.”
“That was what was lacking in that incarnation. It was too much of a straight-ahead horror movie. The Mummy should be a thrill ride, but not terrifying and scary. I know how difficult it is to pull it off. I tried to do it three times.” Indirewire reported that the original 1932 Mummy film was a fairly straightforward monster movie, while Fraser’s 1999 film & its two sequels stressed the scares in favor of an action-adventure movie, a la the “Indiana Jones” franchise.
Fraser’s ‘The Whale’ will be released in theaters on December 9, 2022.
The new film ‘The Whale is directed by Darren Aronofsky, and it stars Fraser as a middle-aged teacher attempting to reconnect with his estranged teen daughter. So far, it has been widely labeled as Fraser’s comeback to Hollywood after his career stalled for several years. It has equally generated considerable Oscar buzz for the actor.
However, this comes as Fraser received a six-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival when he attended the premiere of The Whale.
A video that captured the moment showed how the actor attempted to exit the stage and audience, with people onstage not holding back in giving Fraser an ovation. In response, he was left in TEARS. Many fans and celebrities reacted to the moment, including Dwayne The Rock Johnson, who wrote: ‘Man, this makes me so happy to see this beautiful ovation for Brendan.”
The Rock added: “He supported me coming into his Mummy Returns franchise for my first role ever, which kicked off my Hollywood career.”
It’s so good to have Fraser back on board. Apart from the Whale, he’s set to feature in the Martin Scorsese-directed Killers of the Flower Moon alongside Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio. Fraser is also set to star in Behind the Curtain of Night and has a role with Glenn Close and Peter Dinklage in brothers.
