The Mummy director Alex Kurtzman on resurrecting Universal’s iconic ‘monster heritage’

Universal Pictures has finally unleashed the first full-length trailer to upcoming monster movie The Mummy and it's sure getting everybody talking. Set to be the first outing in a developing series based on old horror classics, the film certainly has pressure on it's bandage-wrapped shoulders; not only to kick-start a new franchise but to honour the legendary stories' origins too. A responsibility that director Alex Kurtzman doesn't take lightly…

"When I started talking to [Universal Pictures], I realised there was this tremendous sense of pride that they had in their monster heritage," the 43-year-old recently told Coming Soon. "They called them 'Our monsters'… What you will come to understand is that the mummy exists in a continuum of monsters. They have been around for potentially longer than we have. Part of why we wanted to start with the Mummy is because she's one of the oldest ones."

"Creature From The Black Lagoon, Frankenstein, Bride Of Frankenstein, Hunchback [Of The Notre Dame], Phantom Of The Opera, Dr. Jekyll," Kurtzman listed off. "Universal owns the rights to Frankenstein's bolts-in-the-neck, flat-top head, green face. So now you take all that away, and I'd say, 'But it's still Frankenstein', you're going to go, 'No, it's not.'

And if you ask a four-year old child to draw Frankenstein for you, they're going to draw bolts in the neck, flat-top head and green face. It is culturally embedded. That is the world we live in, it's not going away."

Judging from the full-length trailer, it's clear to see that Kurtzman was keen on returning to the franchise's horror roots rather than adopting more of the comedic, adventure-type tone the Brendan Fraser movies presented from the late 1990s. He explained that the scares were something he loved about the original movie – released way back in 1932 – and how it influenced his treatment of the story in the new film.

"[We asked ourselves] 'What would it be like if we took a real monster and put that monster in our world?,'" the filmmaker continued. "Not in a fake world, but our world. What would that be like? How would it react to us, and how would we react to it? I think that the question of where magic and science meet has always been something that interested me… One of the things that I loved about The Mummy — that was very unique to both the Mummy and to Dracula — was that the Mummy had the power to mesmerise. He could get in your head, he could make you do sh-t. And that was really scary."

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