It’s Saturday morning. You slept in just a tad, but you still get up early because the new episode of X-Men will be airing on Fox Kids. You get your bowl of cereal ready, turn on your tube television and hear that static as the screen fades in. Then, you hear that iconic theme song. Nostalgia is a hot commodity nowadays, but with animation, the team behind X-Men ’97 has the advantage of emulating the classic look of the original 90s cartoon. This was demonstrated by the viral video of a segment of Star Trek: The Next Generation being made into a cartoon in the style of the original Star Trek animated series.
Disney has just released the trailer for X-Men ’97 and they hit you hard and fast with the nostalgia. The beginning of the trailer and teaser poster convey images of a child’s room in the 90s as he collects X-Men comics and videotapes of the animated series. The synopsis reads, “X-Men ’97 revisits the iconic era of the 1990s as The X-Men, a band of mutants who use their uncanny gifts to protect a world that hates and fears them, are challenged like never before, forced to face a dangerous and unexpected new future.”
The voice cast includes Ray Chase as Cyclops, Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey, Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm, Cal Dodd as Wolverine, JP Karliak as Morph, Lenore Zann as Rogue, George Buza as Beast, AJ LoCascio as Gambit, Holly Chou as Jubilee, Isaac Robinson-Smith as Bishop, Matthew Waterson as Magneto and Adrian Hough as Nightcrawler. Beau DeMayo serves as head writer; episodes are directed by Jake Castorena, Chase Conley and Emi Yonemura. Featuring music by The Newton Brothers, the series is executive produced by Brad Winderbaum, Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso and DeMayo.
The Fox Kids X-Men animated series ran from 1992 to 1997, and this new series will pick up where the original left off. The popularity of the cartoon kept Marvel Comics afloat during the company’s dark days when the brand was struggling to be profitable and was far from the juggernaut it is now. The cartoon would lend itself to the success of Bryan Singer’s 2000 film adaptation, X-Men, which modestly started the comic book movie boom before 2002’s Spider-Man had Hollywood clamoring for the same box office success. Hugh Jackman, the first (and so far only) big-screen Wolverine, is due to make his return in Deadpool & Wolverine.
Universal Studios intended to build a cinematic universe with reboots of their classic Monster properties: the Dark Universe. A series of connected creature features, starting with a new version of The Mummy (watch it HERE), a big budget adventure film led by Tom Cruise. It sounds like a success story in the making, but something went wrong on the way to the screen. The Mummy was a financial failure, poorly received by critics and movie-goers alike. The Dark Universe was dead on arrival. So let’s look back at this bungled attempt at creating a cinematic universe and find out What the F*ck Happened to The Mummy.
The Mummy franchise started in 1932 with a film that starred the legendary Boris Karloff. He played Imhotep, an Ancient Egyptian high priest who was buried alive for attempting to resurrect the love of his life. Returned to life thousands of years later, Imhotep comes to believe a modern woman may be the reincarnation of his lost love. Universal made five more Mummy movies over the next couple decades… and while Imhotep ditched his bandages early on, the other mummies remained shambling, bandage-wrapped creatures throughout. Jump ahead to 1999. Universal revived the Mummy franchise with a blockbuster hit that starred Brendan Fraser as adventurer Rick O’Connell and Arnold Vosloo as Imhotep. Rick fought Imhotep again in 2001’s The Mummy Returns – a film that also spawned the spin-off franchise The Scorpion King. And in 2008, Rick battled another mummy, this one played by Jet Li, in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Although Dragon Emperor wasn’t as popular as its predecessors, Universal was initially planning to make another sequel. Having battled Egyptian and Chinese mummies, Rick would next take on a South American mummy in a film titled Rise of the Aztecs. There was even talk of Antonio Banderas playing the villain this time around.
But the same year Dragon Emperor was released, there was a shift in the blockbuster landscape. 2008 was when the Marvel Cinematic Universe got started with Iron Man. As Marvel built this series of connected superhero movies, assembling the Avengers, other studios started looking for ways to build their own cinematic universes. And that’s when Universal realized they could reboot their old Monster movies with films that would be connected to each other and full of crossovers. After all, that’s how the studio had made them the first time around. Standalone films like Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Wolf Man led to crossover movies where the monsters shared the screen. Then they were all introduced to the Abbott and Costello comedy duo as well.
This new endeavor would be called the Dark Universe. But how would they get it started? Would they build upon the success of the Brendan Fraser Mummy movies? Nope. Rise of the Aztecs was scrapped. Universal hired Jon Spaihts, who worked on the Alien prequel Prometheus, and The Hunger Games screenwriter Billy Ray to write competing drafts of a Mummy reboot. Maybe one script would be more worthy of going into production than the other, or maybe they’d just blend the finished scripts together into one. Star Trek reboot writer Alex Kurtzman was hired to produce The Mummy and develop a reimagining of Van Helsing. Underworld director Len Wiseman was attached to direct The Mummy at one point. When he stepped away, the job went to Mama director Andy Muschietti. The idea was that this Mummy would be darker in tone than the Fraser films, but still aimed at viewers of all ages. As development went on, it became clear that this would be more of an adventure movie than a horror movie. So Muschietti bailed. That’s when Kurtzman stepped up to direct the film as his second feature, following the drama People Like Us. Around that time, Universal also brought their Fast and Furious franchise writer Chris Morgan into the Dark Universe. Kurtzman and Morgan were to mastermind the entire series. Universal was going all-in on this. There would be reboots of Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Wolf Man, Phantom of the Opera, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Creature from the Black Lagoon. All of the classics were coming back.
They weren’t quite sure if their 2014 release Dracula Untold should be part of the Dark Universe, though. Reshoots were done to open the door to this possibility. Just in case. But once Dracula Untold was released, they decided, no, it wasn’t a Dark Universe movie. The Mummy would get this party started.
The Dark Universe would run on star power. This became evident when Tom Cruise, who had worked with Kurtzman on Mission: Impossible 3, signed on to star in The Mummy. And you don’t cast Cruise in your potential blockbuster to read the lines from an existing script. He’s going to bring some big ideas to the table, and he’s going to get some degree of creative control. Since Kurtzman had little directing experience, it’s been no surprise to hear that he struggled with the scope of the film during production. So Cruise took on nearly complete creative oversight. Sources told Variety, “it felt more like Cruise was the real director, often dictating the major action sequences and micro-managing the production”. And his control carried on into post-production, when he brought in his own editor.
Although Jon Spaihts retains a story credit on the finished film, Kurtzman also worked on the script. So did Rachel Getting Married writer Jenny Lumet, Jurassic Park writer David Koepp, Cruise’s frequent collaborator Christopher McQuarrie, and McQuarrie’s pal Dylan Kussman, who is best known as an actor. There were probably some uncredited script doctors in the mix as well. Here’s where problems begin to emerge. Not only was Universal rushing into the idea of a shared universe, but there were also too many cooks in the Mummy kitchen.
One draft of the script was said to involve a Navy SEAL named Tyler Colt, who battles mummies led by Ashurbanipal – a real historical figure – during a mission in Iraq. It was during the Lumet rewrite that the villainous mummy became a female character to be played by Sofia Boutella. She is Ahmanet, an Egyptian princess who was erased from the history books. The daughter of a Pharaoh, she craved the power of being Pharaoh herself. She wanted to be worshipped as a living god. But then her father had a son who became heir to the throne. So Ahmanet called upon Set, the god of death, who turned her into a monster. She murdered her family and planned to bring Set into the world through the body of a mortal man. That plan was thwarted when she was captured and mummified alive for her evil deeds. Her body was taken to a tomb in Mesopotamia, an area we now know as Iraq. Her sarcophagus was suspended by chains in a pool of mercury, a substance the Egyptians believed weakened evil. Unfortunately, Ahmanet’s evil is unleashed when the tomb is discovered in modern day. But it’s not discovered by anyone named Tyler Colt. Instead, it’s located by treasure-hunting American soldier Nick Morton, played by Cruise, and archaeologist Jenny Halsey, played by genre regular Annabelle Wallis.
Nick isn’t like the heroes Cruise often plays. He’s not highly capable or skilled and he’s not a badass. He’s a flawed person, a bit of a creep who’s only out for himself. He uses people around him to get closer to his goals. If someone is slower than him in a scary situation, he’s even fine with leaving them behind. The idea was that he’s an immoral guy who has to find his soul and humanity while battling this supernatural evil. He can be a fun character to watch, as long as you’re not looking for any trace of Ethan Hunt, Jack Reacher, or Maverick.
Ahmanet’s sarcophagus is loaded into a military cargo plane for a flight to London, destined for the headquarters of an organization called Prodigium. Like S.H.I.E.L.D. in the MCU and Monarch in the Godzilla and Kong Monsterverse, Prodigium was meant to tie together the movies in the Dark Universe. The scientists and soldiers of Prodigium are monster hunters; the organization exists to recognize, contain, examine, and destroy evil. That’s why there are nods to vampires, the Gill Man, and even The Mummy ‘99 in their base. Their leader, Doctor Jekyll, is a troubled man who has to regularly inject himself with a serum. This keeps him from being overwhelmed by an alternate personality; Mister Hyde, who thrives on chaos and suffering. The role of Jekyll and Hyde was offered to Tom Hardy, but a deal couldn’t be made. The next choice was Javier Bardem – who opted to play Frankenstein’s Monster in a future Dark Universe movie instead. So the filmmakers turned to Russell Crowe. Cruise and Crowe are friends and had been wanting to work with each other for a long time. They finally got their chance here, and it seems like Crowe had a blast working on the movie, drawing inspiration for his Jekyll and Hyde performance from Stephen Fry and Ray Winstone.
Things go very wrong during the flight to London. The plane crashes, and this was the big stunt Cruise suggested for the film. He wanted the crash sequence to be shot in a zero gravity situation. Filming took place on a real plane achieving zero-g twenty-five thousand feet in the air. The cast and crew went into zero-g sixty-four times, and each time would have about thirty seconds to film Cruise and Wallis floating around in the plane. It’s impressive if you hear about it… but if you watch the movie without knowing how it was done, it’s no more impressive than if the actors were swinging on wires on a stage.
Nick dies in the plane crash. But he doesn’t. He awakens in the morgue, with visions telling him Ahmanet has chosen him to be the body of the demon Set. The mummy rises from the plane wreckage to seek him out, killing anyone who gets in her way, absorbing their life force to regenerate herself. To bring Set’s essence into Nick, Ahmanet will have to perform a ritual involving a ceremonial knife with a jewel in the hilt. She needs the dagger and the separated jewel, so Nick and Jenny go scrambling to find the pieces before the mummy does. And they don’t only have to deal with Ahmanet. She can raise the dead to serve as her zombie slaves, which provides some cool moments. Including one where zombies swim after our hero in a flooded tomb.
Unfortunately, at one point the action is disrupted by a clunky twenty minute stop-over in Prodigium headquarters. The movie actually takes a break to do Dark Universe world-building. Which ends up giving it a disjointed, assembly line feeling.
The action resumes with Ahmanet revealing that she, like Imhotep in the ‘99 version of The Mummy, can call upon sandstorms. She sends one blasting through the streets of London… But she doesn’t accomplish anything by using this power, so it feels like it was just added in as an expensive nod to the earlier Mummy. It’s out of place and inconsequential. Oddly, Kurtzman has said this was the first idea he had for the film, as it represents “a monster coming to our world in a real way”. So it’s interesting that it’s so awkward. Maybe because it was something they were determined to include whether it fit in or not.
Kurtzman has also said he wanted the film to be a collision between horror and comedy, along the lines of An American Werewolf in London and the Evil Dead franchise. While more serious than the Brendan Fraser films, this Mummy is more intentionally comedic and funnier than it has gotten credit for being, although many viewers have noticed the influence of American Werewolf in certain scenes where Nick is visited by his dead comedic relief sidekick Vail, played by Jake Johnson. Scenes that come off as being unnecessary.
The Mummy has a terrible reputation. And, like Nick Morton, it has plenty of flaws that can be picked apart. But it’s not as bad as its reputation indicates. It’s an okay movie, with ups and downs, some laughs, and entertaining stretches. And under different circumstances, it would have been considered a box office success. It made over four hundred million, in the same range as all three Brendan Fraser movies, not adjusting their numbers for inflation. The problem was the amount of money Universal put into the budget: nearly two hundred million by some counts. And then a hundred million more for the marketing. When you make a Mummy movie that can’t be considered a success after earning four hundred and ten million dollars, you’ve made some poor accounting decisions.
The next Dark Universe movie was supposed to be a remake of Bride of Frankenstein, with Angelina Jolie and Gal Gadot in the running to play the Bride. There was a script by David Koepp and the perfect director at the helm: Bill Condon, who made Gods and Monsters, a fictional story of the last days of original Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein director James Whale. Gods and Monsters even featured scenes of Whale on the set of the original Bride of Frankenstein, so it was fitting that Condon was going to make his own version of that film. But, disappointed with The Mummy’s box office, Universal cancelled Bride of Frankenstein soon before production was supposed to begin. And they scrapped the Dark Universe completely. So we didn’t get to see Javier Bardem as Frankenstein’s Monster, or the Invisible Man movie that would have starred Johnny Depp. The studio decided to focus on filmmaker-driven, standalone reboots of their Monster properties, leading to projects like the Depp-less The Invisible Man and the Nicolas Cage Dracula comedy Renfield. In some cases, it’s probably for the best that they didn’t carry on with the Dark Universe. For example, there was a Creature from the Black Lagoon script that had a rocket launcher battle and an ending where the Gill Man is recruited into Prodigium, taking a helicopter ride with Doctor Jekyll. We didn’t need to see that.
Looking back on The Mummy years later, Kurtzman – who has gone on to work on many more projects – told The Playlist, “You learn nothing from your successes and you learn everything from your failures. That was probably the biggest failure of my life, both personally and professionally. There’s about a million things I regret about it, but it also gave me so many gifts. I didn’t become a director until I made that movie, and it wasn’t because it was well directed. It was because it wasn’t. And I would not have understood many of the things that I now understand about what it means to be a director had I not gone through that experience. As brutal as it was in many ways, and as many cooks in the kitchen as there were, I am very grateful for the opportunity to make those mistakes. It rebuilt me into a tougher person, and it also rebuilt me into a clearer filmmaker.”
So while The Mummy didn’t turn out like anyone hoped, it all worked out in the end. But it’s still a shame Bill Condon didn’t get to make his Bride of Frankenstein.
A couple of the previous episodes of WTF Happened to This Horror Movie? can be seen below. To see more, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!
The opening scene in Halo season 2’s third episode (titled “Visegrad”) has a telltale marker of prestige television: It’s dark as shit. As John/Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) and the rest of his crew head off to pick up the cliffhanger from episode two, I’m squinting like a grunt staring into the sun right before its…
The opening scene in Halo season 2’s third episode (titled “Visegrad”) has a telltale marker of prestige television: It’s dark as shit. As John/Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) and the rest of his crew head off to pick up the cliffhanger from episode two, I’m squinting like a grunt staring into the sun right before its…
The sci-fi thriller M3GAN (read our review HERE, get a copy HERE) was such a financial success when it reached theatres in January of last year, it didn’t even take Universal Pictures and production companies Blumhouse and Atomic Monster two weeks to announce that they’d be re-teaming for a sequel, with M3GAN 2.0 being scheduled to reach theatres on January 17, 2025… but now the release plan has changed. Instead of trying to replicate the success the first film had in January (which didn’t work out for well for another Blumhouse/Atomic Monster production, Night Swim), Universal Pictures has announced that they’re delaying M3GAN 2.0. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film’s release has been pushed back four months, to May 16, 2025.
Based on a story crafted by produced James Wan, M3GAN was directed by Gerard Johnstone from a screenplay by Akela Cooper (Malignant). The film has the following synopsis: She’s more than just a toy. She’s part of the family.
From the most prolific minds in horror — James Wan, the filmmaker behind the Saw, Insidious and The Conjuring franchises, and Blumhouse, the producer of the Halloween films, The Black Phone and The Invisible Man — comes a fresh new face in terror.
M3GAN is a marvel of artificial intelligence, a life-like doll programmed to be a child’s greatest companion and a parent’s greatest ally. Designed by brilliant toy-company roboticist Gemma, M3GAN can listen and watch and learn as she becomes friend and teacher, playmate and protector, for the child she is bonded to. When Gemma suddenly becomes the caretaker of her orphaned 8-year-old niece, Cady, Gemma’s unsure and unprepared to be a parent. Under intense pressure at work, Gemma decides to pair her M3GAN prototype with Cady in an attempt to resolve both problems — a decision that will have unimaginable consequences.
The film starred Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Ronny Chieng, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen Van Epps, Lori Dungey, and Stephane Garneau-Monten star. Williams and McGraw are expected to return for M3GAN 2.0, which will also be directed by Johnstone.
A collaboration between Universal Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, and Atomic Monster, in association with Divide/Conquer, M3GAN was produced by Wan and Jason Blum. Williams served as executive producer alongside Mark Katchur, Ryan Turek, Michael Clear, Judson Scott, Adam Hendricks, and Greg Gilreath.
Are you looking forward to M3GAN 2.0? What do you think of the film’s release being pushed back? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
A random player and I are surrounded by giant, alien bugs who want to rip out our guts and eat our bones. We are trying to destroy their nest, which lies in a rocky crater on some backwater alien planet. Low on ammo, out of health items, and unsure of what to do next, it seems we are screwed. But this is Helldivers 2—w…
A random player and I are surrounded by giant, alien bugs who want to rip out our guts and eat our bones. We are trying to destroy their nest, which lies in a rocky crater on some backwater alien planet. Low on ammo, out of health items, and unsure of what to do next, it seems we are screwed. But this is Helldivers 2—w…
You wanna get nuts? C’mon, let’s get nuts. Through no fault of his own, Michael Keaton’s fun, nostalgic return as Batman had imploded when The Flash would debut to disaster and his follow-up in Batgirl would equally become infamous by getting shelved and locked away. Keaton is bouncing back in a big way with his second directorial effort, Knox Goes Away. Keaton’s directorial debut came in 2008 with the crime thriller, The Merry Gentleman. The trailer for Knox Goes Away has dropped courtesy of Saban Films and features a quote from our own Chris Bumbray, which was also featured on the poster, which says Keaton gives “A career-best performance.”
Knox Goes Away revolves around a contract killer who, after being diagnosed with a fast-moving form of dementia, is presented with the opportunity to redeem himself by saving the life of his estranged adult son. But to do so, he must race against the police closing in on him and the ticking clock of his own rapidly deteriorating mind.
Keaton stars alongside Al Pacino, known for The Godfather and Scarface, James Marsden from the Sonic the Hedgehog movies and Enchanted, and Marcia Gay Harden from Mystic River and Into the Wild. The movie also features Ray McKinnon, Suzy Nakamura, Lela Loren, Dennis Dugan, Jonna Kulig, and more
Gregory Poirier, whose credits include films like National Treasure: Book of Secrets, wrote the script for Knox Goes Away, with Keaton producing alongside Brookstreet’s Trevor Matthews and Nick Gordon, with Michael Sugar of Sugar23 and Ashley Zalta. Jonathan Saba, Carter Stanton, Jillian Kay, Nick Blasko, Wayne Carmona, David Gendron, Michael Hansen, Nate Holthouser, Andy Huang, Ali Jazayeri, Scott Lake, Eric London, Donald Povieng, Dina Randazzo, Ronald Richardson, and Viviana Zarragoitia executive produce.
Saban Films has scheduled the release date for Knox Goes Away on March 15.
Things are looking even grimmer for Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer on troubled western Rust. As determined by a judge just one week out from her trial, Gutierrez-Reed will indeed stand before the court despite trying to get her involuntary manslaughter case – stemming from the tragic 2021 death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins – dismissed.
The judge (as per Deadline), stated, “I find that the communications are not materially prejudicial to the defendant…I’m denying the motion.” This will find Hannah Gutierrez-Reed standing trial beginning February 21st, with it expected to last until early the next month. Gutierrez-Reed is also facing charges of tampering with evidence. The armorer has a lot working against her at this point, no less that she reportedly showed up to work hung over, leading to negligence that prosecutors say had a direct part in the death of Hutchins. According to them, “Her reckless failure resulted in the senseless death of another human being…”
Alec Baldwin – who held the gun tied to Hutchins’ death – will also stand trial for manslaughter, although his date has not yet been set. He maintains that he is not guilty.
While those who have followed the incident closely will have to wait on Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s verdict – which could find her facing up to three years behind bars – filming on Rust did wrap last spring. No release date has been announced.
If any positives can be found in the horrible ordeal, they all relate to the point that more attention must be paid to the safety of everybody on the set. Negligence can clearly lead to tragedy; sadly, as we know, the death of 42-year-old Halyna Hutchins is not the first time someone has been the victim on a movie set. Hopefully new changes regarding ammunition and cast/crew safety are strictly enforced in Hollywood and more names don’t join the list of those who have died from errors such as this.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s previous credits are Nicolas Cage western The Old Way and the now unfortunately titled Murder at Yellowstone City.
Do you think Rust armorer Gutierrez-Reed will be found guilty on her charges? How will it shape Alec Baldwin’s case?
You don’t have to be clairvoyant to know that Madame Web has been receiving some pretty savage reviews, and it turns out that the box office is equally unimpressive. The Marvel movie opened in theaters today, but it’s already getting destroyed by Bob Marley: One Love, the biopic of the iconic reggae musician.
Bob Marley: One Love is looking to pull in $12 million today, which is the best showing for a Valentine’s Day midweek release since Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams’ The Vow in 2012. As for Madame Web, the film is lagging way behind with only $5-$5.5 million. The six-day projections aren’t much better, with Bob Marley: One Love looking at $30 million and Madame Web looking at $20 million.
Madame Web stars Dakota Johnson as Cassandra Webb, “a paramedic in Manhattan who develops the power to see the future… and realizes she can use that insight to change it. Forced to confront revelations about her past, she forges a relationship with three young women bound for powerful destinies…if they can all survive a deadly present.” The film is currently sitting at 17% on Rotten Tomatoes, which places it only two points above Sony’s last Marvel bomb: Morbius.
Our own Chris Bumbray reviewed Madame Web, which he called a “big mess.” It doesn’t seem as though this will be the franchise starter that Sony doubtlessly hoped it would be, as the “terrible, cornball dialogue and lacklustre pace” doom what would have been a “decent little B-side of a superhero film.” You can check out the rest of Bumbray’s review right here.
As for Bob Marley: One Love, the film “celebrates the life and music of an icon who inspired generations through his message of love and unity. On the big screen for the first time, discover Bob’s powerful story of overcoming adversity and the journey behind his revolutionary music.”
While the film has been receiving better reviews than Madame Web, it seems to have fallen flat in certain aspects. “In the end, Bob Marley: One Love is an uneven film with some tremendous performances,” wrote our own Tyler Nichols in his review. “It ultimately doesn’t end up being anything other than a way to introduce a younger generation to a talented artist they may not be familiar with. But in terms of getting to understand the man behind it all? At this point, I’m not sure we’ll ever get that in movie form.” You can check out the rest of Nichols’ review right here.
