Nick Morton, meet Princess Ahmanet.
Two months out from release, Entertainment Weekly has summoned an all-new action shot for The Mummy, Universal and Alex Kurtzman’s bold reboot that places Tom Cruise in the grubby boots of Morton. A former military man with experience in the Middle East, by the time Kurtzman’s budding franchise-starter opens in June, Nick Morton will have uncovered an ancient, all-consuming evil the likes of which he’s never seen. Down below, you’ll get a sneak peek at that encounter between god and man, as Tom Cruise gingerly approaches the Mummy, who is securely (?) bound by all sorts of restraints.
As writer-director Alex Kurtzman tells EW, Sofia Boutella’s deity is “a woman who wasn’t content to be put in her place and wanted something more.” You’ll get a sense of that history via The Mummy‘s new international trailer (see above), while Boutella also offered some insight into how she approached the character itself: “These people never shouted. They were the most powerful people, but they were just calm.”
When asked about the overarching universe that Universal has planned, Alex Kurtzman stressed that the movie never loses sights of the monster at hand.
“The movie’s called ‘The Mummy,’ not ‘The Mummy Meets 12 Other Monsters. If we create a world that feels interesting and scary, then we will have succeeded in setting up the larger universe.”
Even with its standalone nature in mind, The Mummy can still be viewed as ground zero within Universal’s Monsters Universe. The presence of Russell Crowe’s Dr. Jekyll and the Prodigium confirms as much, and eagle-eyed fans have even spotted another famous movie monster lurking in the shadows. Spoilers: he fears garlic and has an insatiable taste for blood.
The Mummy looms over theaters on June 9th. Other projects that have been floated at Universal include Van Helsing, the Invisible Man, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Bride of Frankenstein. Each standalone horror flick is considered its own beast, too, though the studio is still mulling over the actual order in which they’ll release.
