Released in 1999, The Mummy was a box office hit with $409 million worldwide (by today's standards, that would be roughly $767 million). Two sequels followed, as did a spin-off - 2002's The Scorpion King - which put Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson on the map as an actor.
Stephen Sommers directed the first two movies, passing the baton to Rob Cohen for The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Then, in 2017, The Mummy franchise was rebooted as part of Universal's short-lived "Dark Universe."
Tom Cruise took centre stage in what proved to be a rare critical and commercial flop for the A-Lister, and Sommers recently shared his thoughts on the movie while talking to The Hollywood Reporter (via SFFGazette.com).
"No," he responded when asked if the studio reached out to him. "Actually, I was kind of insulted because the writers and director [Alex Kurtzman] of that Tom Cruise one, no one ever contacted me. I contact people if I was going to take over somebody’s thing. The third one, which Rob [Cohen] directed, it’s kind of my baby."
"I didn’t want to step on his toes, so I helped produce it. But I had nothing to do with the Tom Cruise one," Sommers continued. "They never contacted me or called me. I was doing other things, and it’s not like I sat crying. I just think it’s common courtesy."
As for Brendan Fraser's comments about potentially reprising his role as adventurer Rick O'Connell, the filmmaker admitted he hasn't been involved in any talks about a possible revival.
"All the people at Universal are new after I left. I don’t really know them, and they haven’t got a hold of me, so I don’t know what’s in their heads," Sommers said. "At the same time, it would have to be something really special. Of course, I would work with all of those actors again."
Finally, he reflected on helping make The Rock a star. "He was great. I had never heard of the guy, but then they sent me some footage of him, and he was just perfect. I had to shoot so fast with him because he flew into Marrakesh on Wednesday, and he had to be in Detroit for a WWE thing on Saturday."
"But boy, was he a trooper. As soon as the studio saw the dailies, the president of Universal was calling me up and saying, “You got to write a movie for him.” Somehow over the next week or so, I came up with this idea that became the Scorpion King movie."
There's currently no word on what Universal has planned for The Mummy franchise. While The Rock is revisiting some of his past ventures such as the Fast & Furious franchise and WWE, we're not banking on ever seeing a Scorpion King sequel...