Brendan Fraser reveals reason why Tom Cruise's Mummy movie buried itself
The 56-year-old actor played treasure hunter Rick O'Connell three times in Stephen Sommers' Mummy franchise which was a huge box office hit.
Cruise's The Mummy was released in 2017 and was supposed to spawn a Dark Universe of connected films based on the Universal Classic Monsters but it was a critical and commercial failure and the idea to build a cinematic monster universe was scrapped.
Fraser has now spoken out about why Cruise's The Mummy flopped, insisting it lacked any of the adventure or excitement that Sommers' films had.
Speaking at Fan Expo Denver, Brendan said: "I know Tom Cruise tried to make his movie and it ain't easy! We all know how hard this movie is to make.
"With the exception of three [The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor], the thing with all of these films is that, at least it was fun, it was a thrill ride, and you wanted to do it again.
"The answer is you've just got to give everybody what they really, really want. If you stray from that path..."
Sommers directed the first two instalments of the Fraser series, which also starred Rachel Weisz, John Hannah and Arnold Vosloo, and produced the third.
Sommers previously admitted he was not a fan of the reboot and was annoyed that director Alex Kurtzman or the writers David Koepp, Christopher McQuarrie and Dylan Kussman never bothered to contact him to ask for any advice or pointers.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he said: "I was kind of insulted because the writers and director of that Tom Cruise one, no one ever contacted me.
"I contact people if I was going to take over somebody's thing. The third one, which Rob [Cohen] directed, it's kind of my baby. I didn't want to step on his toes, so I helped produce it. But I had nothing to do with the Tom Cruise one. They never contacted me or called me. I was doing other things, and it's not like I sat crying. I just think it's common courtesy.'
The Mummy is getting another reboot from Evil Dead Rise director Lee Cronin who is releasing his take on the cursed Egyptian monster via New Line in April 2026. It is the first film in The Mummy franchise not to be distributed by Universal Pictures.
Cronin has vowed that his vision for the film "will be unlike any Mummy movie you've ever laid eyeballs on before".
He added: "I'm digging deep into the earth to raise something very ancient and very frightening."
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