Just last week there were reports that Russell Crowe was in negotiations to star as a Dr. Jekyll-type character in The Mummy starring Tom Cruise. It was said that the role could be more than just a cameo and if successful would open the door for him to star in more films and possibly his own solo feature.
Now, what was a rumor has become a confirmation as Crowe has confirmed that he will be a part of the Monsters Shared Universe that Universal Pictures is currently building. Plus, he says the film is being made to “seriously scare the shit out of you.” More on the story below.
Crowe was recently in Los Angeles to help promote The Nice Guys and confirmed the news to Collider. Here’s what he told the site:
Yeah, I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna play Dr. Henry Jekyll, Fellow of the Royal Society. It’s very interesting, what they’re gonna do with that stuff. I’ve had a couple of chats about it with the director (Alex Kurtzman). I’ve known Tom Cruise since 1992, or something like that. When he was married to an Australian, I was really good friends with him. But when he got divorced, I was part of the settlement package, and I went to Nicole [Kidman].
Directed by Alex Kurtzman (who is also one of the brain trust for the Universal Monsters Shared Universe alongside Chris Morgan), The Mummy would mark the first time that Cruise and Crowe have worked together. This is also the first time that Crowe and Kurtzman have collaborated on a project, to which the actor expressed his confidence in the filmmaker:
“He really understands the world and he’s been around a long time, on a lot of big projects. He knows how to get something from an idea on the page onto a soundstage and into a camera. Sure, I would imagine he’s scared shitless right about now, and having a hard time sleeping because he’s got ten million things on his mind right now. But when we started talking about this idea, there were a few things I put up in the air and he picked up on them. Those kinds of creative collaborative conversations, if they’re explosive like that from the first time you start talking, and somebody says something that goes off in your mind and that bumps up something that you say and that other person bounces off of that, you’re actually in a really good place. How they’ve pulled all of this stuff forward into a contemporary world and how they’re building it out from there, and how all of the different character interweave into each other’s stories, it’s fantastic.”
When asked how this Mummy would compare to the campiness of previous three starring Brenden Frasier, Crowe said the film is “designed to seriously scare the shit out of you.” Well, that sounds a lot like it’s going back to its roots of the 1932 film. But how exactly will a Dr. Jekyll-type character fit into a modern-day world and how does Cruise’s navy seal character tie into all of this? I guess it will all be revealed when The Mummy arrives on June 9, 2017.
Here’s the official plot synopsis:
Tom Cruise headlines a spectacular, all-new cinematic version of the legend that has fascinated cultures all over the world since the dawn of civilization: The Mummy.
Thought safely entombed in a crypt deep beneath the unforgiving desert, an ancient queen (Sofia Boutella of Kingsman: The Secret Service and Star Trek Beyond) whose destiny was unjustly taken from her is awakened in our current day, bringing with her malevolence grown over millennia and terrors that defy human comprehension.
From the sweeping sands of the Middle East through hidden labyrinths under modern-day London, The Mummy brings a surprising intensity and balance of wonder and thrills in an imaginative new take that ushers in a new world of gods and monsters.
[Source: Collider]
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