There was a rumor floating around a few weeks ago that Jet Li was in talks to hop aboard The Mummy 3 as the big baddie. The Rumor Mill wasn’t lying- Hollywood Reporter is now officially stating that Jet Li is officially in talks for the role. Apparently, in The Mummy 3 China is the new Egypt, which opens up all kinds of new adventures that can explain high-flying wire-fu theatrics and fresh Asian mysticism instead of that boring Scarab and dog army stuff.
The plot is still being kept locked away behind a vault deep within Rob Cohen’s and Stephen Sommers audience-hating hearts, but we do know, as mentioned above, that the story takes place in China and involves the unseeded chia pet burial ground (No Oded/Vosloo connection!?). The action takes place years later, when Richard O’Connell and Evie’s kid is all growed up – which places the time line in the years following dubya-dubya-two.
The Mummy 3 was written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, whose teamwork gave us the thrilling Herbie Fully Loaded and Shanghai Noon.
Radical.
I’ve mentioned before that the Mummy is one of my moviegoing guilty pleasures (overbearing/crappy CG, Stephen Sommers and all) so I’m kind of looking forward to seeing how this goes, despite having loathed everything put out by speed-freak Cohen.
In the meant time, Jet Li will be chasing naughty FBI agent Jason Statham in the upcoming (September) War and is currently prepping for a film where he’ll team-up with Jackie Chan.