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Universal needs franchises: what to do with "The Mummy"?

Gaith

Gaith

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The AV Club reports:
If its last-minute bailing on the Tom Cruise-starring, Guillermo del Toro-directed At The Mountains Of Madness weren’t indication enough, Universal has become increasingly risk-averse—an attitude first hinted at back in 2009, when the company (still smarting from a summer of flops like Land Of The Lost) promised a future dominated by “marketable concepts” and sequels to established properties. This week saw two indicators of how that future will play out, with both the firing of the studio’s president of production and Universal’s excited announcement of how they planned to wring several more years out of the Fast And Furious franchise, now that Fast Five gave them their biggest-ever opening weekend. But in perhaps the most obvious omen that the mood at Universal has shifted, Variety reports that the studio is now considering abandoning Ron Howard’s ambitious adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower novels, a massive, massively expensive project that was supposed to encompass three films and two TV series over the course of the next decade.
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Okay, first, let me please emphasize that this is not a Dark Tower thread; that's over here. This is a Mummy thread! :techman:



Still with moi? Okay. As the article says, Universal's hurting for franchise material (they could maybe beg Del Toro to do a Hellboy III, but would anyone care?), what with Disney scooping up Marvel Studios distribution rights, Jurassic Park still extinct, and no Kong sequels. The Mummy is one of the few tentpole franchises it can call its own - but then, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, while a money-maker ($401m worldwide on a $145 budget), wasn't the franchises-rebooter they'd hoped for.

So. What to do? Let's run down the obvious options:


- Do nothing, and hope that Jurassic Park velociraptors-with-lasers script comes together soon, with Vin Diesel starring. Hell, expand the vocabulary of the raptors from JPIII, give 'em a voice box, and it could be a buddy cop comedy.

- A Fraser/Bello/Hannah/Ford (no, not that one) fourth-movie. Maybe set in Peru, as the ass-whoppingly lazy title card that finished the third one set up. Pro: without Weisz, who definitely ain't coming back, alas, Fraser is the series. Con: he's also pretty expensive, and might not care.

- A Fraser/Bello WW2 Nazi-kickin' flick. Pro: spotlight on Rick, punching Nazis is always fun. Con: he's already married, and they already did the bored-spouses stuff in TotDE; unfavorable comparisons with Raiders and Last Crusade guaranteed.

- A Luke Ford Alex O'Connell spin-off solo pic. Pro: could be modestly budgeted, and a potential franchise rebooter... again. Con: lukewarm reception to his TotDE performance; possible backlash if no Fraser, character already has a girlfriend (though she could always be forgotten). Pic would likely have to be airtight like the first Mummy to have a chance.

- Reboot/prequel focusing on Rick before Mummy 1. Pro: Rick is badass, he lives in classic Indy times. Con: without a supernatural element, would anyone care?

- Fraser/Nathan Fillion as Indiana Jones WW2 team-up pic. Pro: duh! Winning! Con: you and what George Lucas-controlling hypnotist army?

- Oded Fehr (Ardeth Bay from the first two movies) solo action pic. Pro: He's a total badass, and Muslim, too: sensitivity points; good for West-Middle East relations. Con: his character is pretty closely linked to Imhotep, and we've all had about enough of him; it'd be hard to do a sexy romance subplot without alienating Middle Eastern audiences. Maybe a solo Ardeth WW2 pic?


One sees the problems with all these, and why there hasn't been any movement or even news on the franchise in three years. Hell, I love the crap out of The Mummy, and even I waited to Netflix TotDE.

While I'd definitely give an Alex-centric Ford spin-off movie a ticket-buying chance if the reviews were good, as much as I love Fraser's Rick, the best solution may be to take a page from The Mummy, which lovingly riffed on the Indy franchise, and introduce a whole new 1930s adventurer. Maybe tease an O'Connel reference or put in a short Rick or Jonathan cameo, but otherwise start clean, and have fun. We could always use more 1930s swashbucklers, right?

Okay, so here's my last, best suggestion:

- A whole new 1930s adventurer, possibly very vaguely tied in to The Mummy. Possibly starring Fillion. Or maybe a badass female adventuress? AFAIK, Tomb Raider has always been a present-day affair, so maybe they could riff on Croft, without all that pesky video-game baggage.


Either way, more 1930s-ish pulp adventure, without the nuked fridges, or Tarzan vine-swinging, please.

Get on it, Univ. :bolian:
 
How about they just start original, fresh and new "franchises" like they used to? Just do good movies, and if they are liked, do sequels, and if they bomb, ditch them. I don't care for this franchise obsession.
 
The mistake ( ok IMO) they made was always making them about Mummies. They should have taken Fraser's character and put him up against the rest of the Universal Monsters. That would have been more fun. He's an adventurer so winding up in Transylvania, Wales, Germany/Switzerland or the Amazon wouldn't be a stretch.
 
^ That would have been fun! I actually happened to like the last film, despite Maria Bello's performance as Evelyn. I wouldn't mind something like Gaith's last option or a solo Alex O'Donnell movie.
 
No offence to the actress chosen to replace her, but I lost interest in the Mummy films when Rachel Weisz decided not to come back.

Alex
 
23skidoo said:
No offence to the actress chosen to replace her, but I lost interest in the Mummy films when Rachel Weisz decided not to come back.

Alex
Click to expand...

While I saw the last one and thought it was kind of cute the way they explained Rachel Weisz's absence, I agree. If she's not going to be in them again, I'm really not interested unless they want to maybe start a new set of Mummy stories with different characters.
 
Nerys Myk said:
The mistake ( ok IMO) they made was always making them about Mummies. They should have taken Fraser's character and put him up against the rest of the Universal Monsters. That would have been more fun. He's an adventurer so winding up in Transylvania, Wales, Germany/Switzerland or the Amazon wouldn't be a stretch.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I'm not a huge fan of the franchise, but I definitely would gotten more behind an idea like that.

Instead of what they did instead with the sequels (and what most sequels do), which was take the same basic storyline and ramp everything up to ridiculous, over the top extremes.
 
Nerys Myk said:
The mistake ( ok IMO) they made was always making them about Mummies. They should have taken Fraser's character and put him up against the rest of the Universal Monsters. That would have been more fun. He's an adventurer so winding up in Transylvania, Wales, Germany/Switzerland or the Amazon wouldn't be a stretch.
Click to expand...

They did make that movie. It was called Van Helsing.
 
Nerys Myk said:
The mistake ( ok IMO) they made was always making them about Mummies. They should have taken Fraser's character and put him up against the rest of the Universal Monsters. That would have been more fun. He's an adventurer so winding up in Transylvania, Wales, Germany/Switzerland or the Amazon wouldn't be a stretch.
Click to expand...

That's a great idea. I never thought of that. But that would've been great to see. More focus should've been on Fraser, who definitely could've pulled it off. He could still pull it off.

As for the continuation of the franchise, three left a good hint, with Central/S. America as a backdrop. Though I could see them going the prequel route as well. However I don't know how they would get around the Mummy issue since it didn't appear that Fraser's character was all that well versed in the supernatural. Perhaps focus on a new character, Fraser's dad?

But it might be better just to start a new round of films focusing on Fraser's son. However I don't know if anyone is really eager to see that.
 
DarKush said:
But it might be better just to start a new round of films focusing on Fraser's son. However I don't know if anyone is really eager to see that.
Click to expand...

If they recast him and gave him some interesting characters to work with, it would be fine. You could even have Fraser still in the story doing something else.
 
ObiWanShinobi said:
Nerys Myk said:
The mistake ( ok IMO) they made was always making them about Mummies. They should have taken Fraser's character and put him up against the rest of the Universal Monsters. That would have been more fun. He's an adventurer so winding up in Transylvania, Wales, Germany/Switzerland or the Amazon wouldn't be a stretch.
Click to expand...

They did make that movie. It was called Van Helsing.
Click to expand...
yeah, that sucked. Rick O'Connell meets Dracula would have been better.
 
Nerys Myk said:
The mistake ( ok IMO) they made was always making them about Mummies. They should have taken Fraser's character and put him up against the rest of the Universal Monsters. That would have been more fun. He's an adventurer so winding up in Transylvania, Wales, Germany/Switzerland or the Amazon wouldn't be a stretch.
Click to expand...

Ding! We have a winner.
 
Nerys Myk said:
The mistake ( ok IMO) they made was always making them about Mummies. They should have taken Fraser's character and put him up against the rest of the Universal Monsters. That would have been more fun. He's an adventurer so winding up in Transylvania, Wales, Germany/Switzerland or the Amazon wouldn't be a stretch.
Click to expand...
Not a bad idea at all - going back to Imhotep for the second installment was, in restrospect, part of what made that movie such a fiasco. That, and it was rushed from conception to release in two years flat.

One of my favorite-ever Hollywood could-shoulda-wouldas is an alternate Mummy 2 picking up exactly where the first one left off, and is a sort of romantic comedy; Evy returns to England and reconnects with upper-class family members who don't at all take to Rick. He, meanwhile, gets in hot water with her in his usual bumbling way, manners not being his strong suit, and starts hanging out a bit too much with Jonathan.

Tying your idea back into things, Nerys, maybe they could be all be menaced by a Scottish werewolf, which ultimately brings Evy and Rick back together. (Okay. /Mummy fanficwanking. :p)


Still, that's all discs under the bridge at this point. How to move forward is the question... RoJoHen said Alex should be recast, but I think Ford might be able to carry a good script. Can't really say without seeing more of him.
 
Nerys Myk said:
The mistake ( ok IMO) they made was always making them about Mummies. They should have taken Fraser's character and put him up against the rest of the Universal Monsters. That would have been more fun. He's an adventurer so winding up in Transylvania, Wales, Germany/Switzerland or the Amazon wouldn't be a stretch.
Click to expand...
Brilliant. I wish Universal had thought of this. Although the movies probably would have stayed with Sommers, so... :ack:

Though maybe if he'd done something like that, they wouldn't have turned out as awful as Van Helsing since he wouldn't have had to cram so many monster references into one movie.
 
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