Movies

The Mummy Lives Again: First Trailer for the Tom Cruise Reboot

By  · Published on December 5th, 2016

Are the Universal Monsters finally making a comeback?

In their day – namely the 1930s – the Universal Monsters ruled Hollywood. They were the original superpowered cinematic universe, but they were all bad guys (for the most part) so way more fun. Dracula, Wolfman, Frank and his wife and all their other friends struck terror into the hearts of millions and forged some of the most iconic moments of film’s early era.

So then it makes sense – especially given our modern appreciation for all things that go bump in the night – that Universal would want to revamp (sorry, couldn’t help myself) that universe for contemporary audiences. It’s been discussed for years, but other than that Benicio del Toro version of The Wolfman, discussion is all that’s come of it. But now Universal is making a real run for the money with be rebooting one of its smaller monster properties with one of the biggest stars in the world.

Mummies get a bad wrap (really sorry) in the monster realm. They don’t have fangs or fur, they aren’t made up of several different corpses, they don’t suck your blood, and the uniform, let’s face it – there’s very little scary about a dude wrapped head to toe in toilet paper. But underneath all those surface (t)issues are beings of immense power who rival ancient gods. Mummies are the reanimated bodies of fallen pharaohs, men who in their day ran the world with an iron fist and who expect to do the same in death, only now imbued with limitless powers of destruction. They might seem like pushovers, but if you want to get technical, mummies are probably the most potent and thus the most dangerous of all the Universal Monsters. Problem is, they’ve never had a modern movie do them justice.

Don’t get me wrong, the Brendan Fraser mummy movies were great fun chockful of (at the time) astounding VFX that more faithfully captured the extent of a mummy’s supernatural abilities, but those films were also decidedly action/adventure-oriented, not horror. What the mummy needs – nay, deserves – is a combination of the two: a rip-roaring adventure with serious horror undertones. And now it looks like we might have gotten it.

Earlier this week the first poster was released, and now you can see the first trailer for The Mummy, a reboot from director Alex Kurtzman starring Tom Cruise that Universal is hoping will relaunch their Monster movies for a new millennium. One thing’s for sure regardless: they’ve put the horror back in the adventure. Dig all the official stuff:

Tom Cruise headlines a spectacular, all-new cinematic version of the legend that has fascinated cultures all over the world since the dawn of civilization: The Mummy.

Thought safely entombed in a tomb deep beneath the unforgiving desert, an ancient princess (Sofia Boutella of Kingsman: The Secret Service and Star Trek Beyond) whose destiny was unjustly taken from her is awakened in our current day, bringing with her malevolence grown over millennia and terrors that defy human comprehension.

From the sweeping sands of the Middle East through hidden labyrinths under modern-day London, The Mummy brings a surprising intensity and balance of wonder and thrills in an imaginative new take that ushers in a new world of gods and monsters.

Cruise is joined by a cast including Annabelle Wallis (upcoming King Arthur, television’s Peaky Blinders), Jake Johnson (Jurassic World), Courtney B. Vance (TV’s American Crime Story: The People V. O.J. Simpson) and Oscar® winner Russell Crowe (Gladiator).

The creative team on this action-adventure event is led by director/producer Alex Kurtzman and producer Chris Morgan, who have been instrumental in growing some of the most successful franchises of the past several years – with Kurtzman writing or producing entries in the Transformers, Star Trek and Mission: Impossible series, and Morgan being the narrative engineer of the Fast & Furious saga as it has experienced explosive growth from its third chapter on. Sean Daniel, who produced the most recent Mummy trilogy, produces alongside Kurtzman and Morgan.

Check out the poster and trailer below, then hit theaters July 9th, 2017, when The Mummy is slated to open.

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