How many of you have made fun of Brendan Frasier in the months leading up to the release of The Mummy? The new release was supposed to be a crack at the film with all the right ideas, and all the right cast and crew. It was supposed to kick off a badass new franchise for Universal Studios and their dark cinematic universe, full of all the old creepies and crawlies from generations ago.
The hope of something really scary and awe inspiring should have made its way to the big screen to rival the run of disappointing jump-scare films from the past decade or more. Well, The Mummy was scary and awe inspiring: scary for how badly it was handled from the beginning and awe inspiring that anyone should allow such a travesty to release to the masses.
So who was responsible for the poor quality of this film? Why, Tom Cruise, of course. At least, that’s what Variety reports. The media news site also says the actor was given “excessive control” of the direction of the movie:
“His writers beefed up his part. In the original script, Morton and the Mummy (played by Sofia Boutella) had nearly equal screen time. The writers also added a twist that saw Cruise’s character become possessed, to give him more of a dramatic arc. Even though Universal executives weren’t thrilled about the story — which feels disjointed and includes Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll — they went along with Cruise’s vision.”
Okay, Tom Cruise can’t take all the blame. After all, the studio gave him the slack to hang the movie. The fact that the actual director of the film, Alex Kurtzman, has only directed one film before this one, People Like Us in 2012, only exacerbated the string of events leading up to the release. Variety also stated:
“Universal, according to sources familiar with the matter, contractually guaranteed Cruise control of most aspects of the project, from script approval to post-production decisions. He also had a great deal of input on the film’s marketing and release strategy, these sources said, advocating for a June debut in a prime summer period.”
It sounds like the film was a one man show, from the writing, to the directing, to the marketing and release date. Tom Cruise can do it all. Though, just because he can do something doesn’t mean he should. Surprisingly enough, he wasn’t a total man-diva, according to Variety. They report it has been stated that he was professional and really knew what he was doing while they were working. We wish the movie was as refreshing as his attitude.
One last sentiment from the media news site:
“…whether Cruise’s directions were improving a picture that had been troubled from its inception or whether they were turning a horror film into a Cruise infomercial.”
Source: Variety