Maria Bello will replace Rachel Weisz as the female lead in the Rob Cohen-directed Mummy 3, according to Variety.

Bello (A History of Violence) was chosen to take over the character of Evelyn Carnahan O’Connell after Weisz declined to reprise the role she played in the first two movies. Brendan Fraser will return to the franchise as Rick O’Connell and Luke Ford will play Rick and Evelyn’s now-adult son Alex.

In the upcoming third installment, the family will journey into the forbidden tombs of China and into the Himalayas, where they run into a new shape-shifting mummy, a former Chinese emperor (Jet Li) who was cursed by a female wizard (Michelle Yeoh).

The Mummy 3 (some reports list the title as The Mummy: Curse of the Dragon) was written by Smallville creators Miles Millar and Alfred Gough. Shooting will begin in Montreal on July 27, and then move to China. The film will open in July 2008, just before the Olympics begin in Beijing.