Culture news “I felt insulted” He was removed from this film with Tom Cruise, really didn’t like it and let it be known
A famous director expresses his resentment after being excluded from the reboot of a cult saga with Tom Cruise. While the film was a “failure”, accumulating negative reviews and a “disappointing” box office reception, everything could have been different with its presence on the ground.
Stephen Sommers, director famous for his 1999 film “The Mummy”, revealed in a recent interview with Hollywood Reporter that he felt deeply hurt by his ouster from the reboot of his own film. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of its creation, Sommers expressed his disappointment at not having been consulted for the new version of “The Mummy” with Tom Cruise, directed by Alex Kurtzman in 2017.
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The failure of the 2017 reboot and its consequences
Sommers revealed his disappointment and bitterness. He explained that he had never been contacted and received no invitation for this new project, a situation he found particularly offensive. “I felt insulted“, he said, specifying that neither the writers nor the director Alex Kurtzman had taken the trouble to contact him personally. For Sommers, this lack of recognition was all the more hurtful as he considered “The Mummy” his “baby”. Despite its past success, which had grossed over $417 million at the time, it was left behind without explanation, an experience he saw as a blatant lack of courtesy and professional respect.
The reboot of “The Mummy” in 2017, supposed to relaunch the Universal Monsters cinematic universe under the aegis of a Dark Universe, ended with a disappointing result at the box office. Despite a hefty production budget of $125 million, plus substantial marketing costs, the film only grossed $409 million worldwide. This figure, well below expectations, not only ended hopes of continuing with other adaptations like “The Bride of Frankenstein”, but also prompted a complete re-examination of Universal’s film strategy. This is also a feeling shared by Alex Kurtzman himself, during an interview with The Playlist via the Bingeworthy podcast:
I tend to believe that we learn nothing from our successes, but everything from our failures. And it – The Mummy – is my most bitter failure, both from a professional and personal point of view. There are a million things I regret, but this experience also gave me something precious
The decline and end of the Dark Universe
The commercial failure of “The Mummy” had significant repercussions at Universal. Dark Universe architects Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan left the project shortly after, marking the premature end of their ambition to connect classic monsters across a shared universe. Donna Langley, CEO of Universal, admitted that the attempt to integrate these iconic characters into a common cinematic whole did not appeal to audiences as expected. This disillusionment pushed the studio to review its strategy, henceforth favoring the artistic vision of filmmakers rather than substantial budgets, thus ending an era for the Universal Monsters.
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