Among the various franchises that studios are currently building into "universes" sit some of the most classic movie monsters ever. Universal seems to be moving forward very quickly with the reboot of The Mummy as they recently signed Tom Cruise to play the lead in the new film. Now they appear to have found their female lead, as well.
According to Variety, Annabelle Wallis, who will next be seen in this weekend’s The Brothers Grimsby, is in talks to take on the female lead role. Little is known about the part at this point, other than Wallis’ character is apparently an archaeologist. One would assume she has particular knowledge regarding ancient Egypt, but we're just guessing.
While casting for The Mummy has been moving along, little else is known about the project. Tom Cruise is set to play the male lead role in a modern adaptation of the classic story. One major twist that’s being added to this version is that the title character will be female rather than male. The Mummy will be played by Sofia Boutella. At this point, the plot is a mystery. With the story being moved to modern day, a time period that has not been the setting for previous Mummy movies, it potentially opens things up quite a bit. The last time the Mummy graced the screen was in a series of films that starred Brendan Fraser that began in 1999. This film will be entirely separate from those.
Dracula Untold from a couple years ago was supposed to be the first part of Universal’s monster movie universe, though the film did not do particularly well, so we’ll have to wait and see if they try that part again. The studio appears to be treating this film as the new beginning of the shared universe, so Luke Evans may be out of luck. Alongside news that The Mummy is moving forward, we’ve also heard that Johnny Depp may have also signed on to play The Invisible Man, another key part of the overall franchise.
The Mummy has a release date currently set for June 9, 2017 so expect things to only begin moving faster. As this goes into production, we should be able to get more details on exactly what The Mummy is, and how it will start a larger cinematic universe for Dracula, The Wolf Man, and Frankenstein’s Monster.
