Writer and Director Alex Kurtzman Says THE MUMMY is the "Biggest Failure of His Life"
Universal Pictures has big plans and big hopes for its monster cinematic universe Dark Universe and then the whole thing crash and burned with the release of Tom Cruise’s The Mummy. The movie ended up completely bombing at the box office and it ended up a terribly made film.
The Mummy was written and directed by Alex Kurtzman (Transformers, Star Trek), and in a recent interview with The Playlist, he said that the film is “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 that are inexpressibly beautiful. 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.”
While he admits that the movie was a complete disaster, he does share some of the positive aspects of his experience with the film saying: “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 because it rebuilt me into a tougher person and it also rebuilt me into a clearer filmmaker … And that has been a real gift and I feel those gifts all the time because I’m very clear now when I have a feeling that doesn’t feel right – I am not quiet about it anymore. I will literally not proceed when I feel that feeling. It’s not worth it to me. And you can’t get to that place of gratitude until you’ve had that kind of experience.”
I didn’t think universal would give up on their Dark Universe plans so easily, but they did! They completely ditched the rest of the films, they were already in development with the lead actors having been cast. The Dark Universe also would have included Johnny Depp as the Invisible Man and Havier Bardem as Frankenstein’s Monster. There was also a Bride of Frankenstein film in development with Angelina Jolie.
It would have been interesting to see what would have happened had Universal pressed forward with its plans. But, thanks to The Mummy, we’ll never know. That film could’ve and should’ve been so much better!