She quickly contacts Dr. Jekyll when Nick Morton survives the plane crash caused by Ahmanet without a scratch on him, and begins exhibiting strange behavior from being cursed by the Mummy. To be fair, it’s been put to fantastic use in a wide variety of films, especially in the sci-fi and fantasy genres. Based in a sprawling headquarters beneath the British Museum of Natural History in London, Prodigium's mission is to "recognize, examine, contain, and destroy evil." Nick, who seemingly has gained some sort of control over the power of Set, is last sighted in the desert with his sidekick Vail, who was a ghost for most of the movie, but was also brought back to life by Nick. Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. - for over a decade. However, with the director of 2017’s The Mummy, Alex Kurtzman, telling The Hollywood Reporter the film ‘wasn’t what I wanted it to be,’ and that making it was ‘painful’ at the time, it could be a while before the studio gives The Mummy a green light again. Annabe… Jekyll claims Prodigium's slogan translates from Latin to "a warning for monsters." In 1999, The Mummy, starring Brendan Fraser, started a successful threequel under the direction of Stephen Sommers, but unfortunately it looks likely that the newest iteration of the franchise, from director Alex Kurtzman, won't do the same due to the largely negative reception it's received. The Mummy Returns inspired the 2002 … Spooky Kids Book 'Ghosts Are People Too' Launches on Kickstarter, Box Office: Liam Neeson's 'Honest Thief' Pilfers $3.7M in U.S. Just gotta say, I know how hard it is to make that movie. You gotta remember to have fun. A belly laugh that could break a window. Jekyll not only runs Prodigium, but he's "also a client." While numbers like this wouldn’t normally lead to a second go round, it’s a safe bet that Universal is hoping it can use Cruise’s international appeal to give the franchise a better launch. The Mummy does a lot of world-building for Universal's Dark Universe franchise - including setting up the evil-battling organization Prodigium. Working with Rachel, it’s Rachel f’in Weisz. Tell us in the comments below! The Mummy has arrived in theaters accompanied by a savage critical reception and a lowered box office projections - which isn't exactly ideal for Universal Pictures. No doubt Cruise’s immense popularity overseas is responsible for the majority of that money. You get real actors, and what we did was skinny them down in CG and remove their hands and heads, and replace those with skeleton hands and heads. By Timothy Lammers Aug 29, 2017. Your brain hopefully succumbs to the illusion. Prodigium maintains some sort of authority even over local London law enforcement. We have a lot of ideas about that. Directed by Alex Kurtzman, The Mummy stars Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, Annabelle Wallis, Jake Johnson, Courtney B. Vance, and Russell Crowe. I'm kind of tying her experience to the audience's experience and hopefully it makes you lean in a little more to wondering what it looks like. When they fight Ahmanet and her undead minions in Surrey, Prodigium's soldiers arrive to save them, subdue Ahmanet, and take her into custody. And I don’t mean complete unknowns; rather, those who have proven their talent, but don’t yet think they’re worth $20 million a picture. | Cookie Settings. Prodigium even had a chamber set up to inject Ahmanet with liquid mercury, which the ancient Egyptians believed warded off evil. 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The Mummy’s was over $160 million, and that’s before marketing costs. Once imbued with the power of Set, Nick kills Ahmanet, resurrects Jenny, and then escapes. While the film may have had a disappointing showing in American theaters, it’s a big success overseas, especially in Asia. The Mummy has been playing in theaters for a few days now, but the pressing question of whether it has sequel potential still goes unanswered. In an interview with Den of Geek, Kurtzman explained what he wants to happen after the release of The Mummy, and it's notable that there's no mention of a sequel, just the Dark Universe. The movie starred Cruise as an archaeologist/adventurer who becomes mixed up in a paranormal fight against an ancient Mummy (Sofia Boutella). Fans got a peek at this character, played by Russell Crowe, in one of The Mummy's trailers. among his friends, believes (correctly) that Superman is stronger than the Hulk, and he is a friend to all talking gorillas. Along with all manner of modern and ancient weapons for battling evil, Prodigium's headquarters contains multiple intriguing trophies encased in glass jars and chambers throughout the facility. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. Who knows what his monsterness will evolve into over the course of the next film? China is the #1 market w/ $91M. It is a reboot of The Mummy franchise and is the first and only installment in Universal's Dark Universe franchise. — Exhibitor Relations (@ERCboxoffice) August 28, 2017, That’s good news for Universal, who were counting on the movie to be the flagship of their “dark universe,” a shared world containing all your old-school monster favorites. The film stars Tom Cruise as U.S. Army Sergeant Nick Morton, a soldier of fortune who accidentally unearths the ancient tomb of entrapped Egyptian princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella). Universal clearly hopes that the Dark Universe will expand, and quickly. But it’s more of a gamble than a guarantee. How or whether Prodigium attempted to somehow explain this event to the public is never addressed. Instead, paving the way for its own sequel, The Mummy concludes with the introduction of a brand new monster. All rights reserved. Brendan Fraser has said he would ‘absolutely’ return to his role as Rick in the beloved Mummy franchise. If you give the audience just enough that their imagination can run wild, it tends to be far more effective than just letting them see everything in the harsh light of day. The choice to play their scene with Tom essentially in silhouette was very much designed from the idea that what you don't see is going to be scarier, and there's a subjectivity to the storytelling in that moment, because she's trying to see him as we're trying to see him. John has been writing about what he likes - movies, TV, comics, etc. The sheer claustrophobia of it, the long, long takes where you are just watching them swimming toward him, I thought would be incredibly uncomfortable. © 2020 The Hollywood Reporter Hyde, the film was supposed to launch Universal’s monster franchise Dark Universe. Morton is no longer a man, but has truly become a monster, with his face wrapped in bandages, apparently too horrifying for us to see. This is stated explicitly by the man who appears to be their leader, Dr. Henry Jekyll (Russell Crowe), a scientist of many disciplines who is also a lawyer. Several things: Our approach in general was to shoot as much practically as we could, and use CG to augment that reality. Along with needing to be an enjoyable tentpole summer blockbuster like the popular Brendan Fraser-led Mummy films of the previous decade were (of which an Easter egg exists in this new film), the 2017 reboot of The Mummy also carries a daunting burden: it must lay the groundwork of establishing Dark Universe, the shared movie universe for Universal's array of classic movie monsters. An ancient Egyptian princess is awakened from her crypt beneath the desert, bringing with her malevolence grown over millennia, and terrors that defy human comprehension. There’s clearly money to be made in the monster market. The 2018 film Halloween successfully revived the long-running slasher franchise. The Mummy is a 2017 action-adventure horror film, and the first installment in the Dark Universe. There were limitations for what we could actually build there, and there certain things that were practically possible. Privacy | The Mummy's Global Box Office Keeps Sequel Possibility Alive. Morton and Vail are cursed by Ahmanet, who is then unleashed upon present day Surrey and London. She got stuck with all the exposition in that show. The Mummy is supposed to be joined by the Wolfman, Frankenstein, the Invisible Man, and possibly others. You can tell something is very wrong, but you can't quite tell what it is. In addition to Cruise and Crowe, the studio has already announced Javier Bardem as Frankenstein and Johnny Depp as the Invisible Man. IF YOU WORK IN THE INDUSTRY, LET US KNOW! Because it's so fast, you can't quite process exactly what it is. A daily briefing on what matters (and what's interesting) in Hollywood. The film, about a freelance treasurer who resurrects a mummy played by Sofia Boutella, isn't necessarily the end of the revived franchise, of course, but it's seeming possible.