Posted in: Dark Universe, Movies, Universal | Tagged: alex kurtzman, annabelle wallis, dark universe, Russel Crowe, sofia boutella, The Mummy, tom cruise, universal

Mummy Director Alex Kurtzman Not Sure About Future With Dark Universe

Published Wed, 02 Aug 2017 15:15:08 -0500

by Joshua Davison

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In a recent interview with IGN, Mummy (2017) director Alex Kurtzman was asked about his status on the Dark Universe franchise. The Dark Universe, for those who don't know, is the Marvel Studios-esque "shared universe" idea that Universal Pictures is trying with the classic "Universal Monsters" like Dracula, the Wolfman, the Invisible Man, and the aforementioned Mummy. This was intended to start with the Luke Evans-led Dracula Untold, but that proved to be a non-starter with unimpressive box office returns and a critical panning.

Alex Kurtzman was intended to be one of the creative directors of the franchise along with fellow director Chris Morgan. However, The Mummy (2017) was also received with a critical panning and disappointing box office profits. Despite this, Universal seems intent on forcing this thing to stumble onwards, possibly due to sinking money on special effects and actors like Tom Cruise, Russell Crowe, and Johnny Depp.

When IGN asked Alex Kurtzman about his status in the Dark Universe series of films, he said, "You know the truth is, I don't know. I really don't know. I haven't really decided. Is the honest answer." That sounds like a frustrated and exhausted answer, which is understandable given that he's probably been fielding this question a lot lately and just had an expensive box office bomb on his hands.

They continued with asking him about how to know you're done with a franchise, to which Kurtzman said, "I have to stay interested in it. I have to feel like my passion is there for it. I think in the case of Star Trek if your passion isn't there you shouldn't be doing it. "

There's something almost DCEU-esque about this whole thing, given that Green Lantern was a failed starting point like Dracula Untold. Then DC continued with Man of Steel, which, though it made a lot more money than Mummy, wasn't a critical darling by any stretch of the imagination. Regardless, both Warner Brothers and Universal both through their hands up, said "screw it," and decided to force this thing anyway.

If we were to, admittedly prematurely, use the DCEU as the expected timeline for the Dark Universe movies, we still have two more critical failures to go before Universal has a well-received, mega-successful movie on their hands.