Universal is hard at work on The Mummy, the studio's planned first installment in a shared universe that would see the title monster sharing a franchise of interconnected films with the likes of Dracula, Frankenstein, the Bride of Frankenstein, the Invisible Man, and Van Helsing. Star Trek and Mission Impossible 3 writer Alex Kurtzman is set to direct The Mummy the from a script by Prometheus scribe Jon Spaihts, and now it seems Universal has set their sights on the actress who will lead as the title monster.
In case you missed it, Universal plans to gender-swap the Mummy as a female role, and now THR reports that Kingsman breakout actress Sofia Boutella is in talks for the part. Since coming on the Hollywood scene by literally kicking people to death in Matthew Vaughn's spy actioner, Boutella has also landed roles in Justin Lin's Star Trek: Beyond and the Charlize Theron led Cold War thriller The Coldest City.
Aside from the fact that The Mummy is a female, script details are being kept pretty tightly under wraps. We do know Tom Cruise is reportedly in discussion to star in the film, possibly as an ex-Navy seal, which will take place in the present day. Interestingly enough, there were conflicting initial reports about his involvement, but THR maintains he's in talks for the film. Kurtzman, who is also overseeing the entire Monsters universe alongside Chris Morgan, told me earlier this year that despite earlier reports, he has no intention of abandoning the film's horror roots, instead aiming for a happy medium between horror and adventure. However, adding Cruise and Boutella (who is a trained dancer and showed off her stunt scene capabilities in Kingsman), certainly points to a more action oriented direction. Kurtzman has also stated that the Monster films will explore "issues of family identity" and the search to find where you belong.
Universal is going for broke with their new shared universe franchise and hopes to release one new monster movie a year, and will kick the whole thing off on March 24, 2017 when The Mummy is set to hit theaters.
