I’m a big fan of Tom Cruise: Movie Star. Edge of Tomorrow is one of the best films of last year, and Cruise continues to keep the Mission: Impossible movies infinitely watchable. I am not a big fan of Tom Cruise: Human Being. The Scientology documentary Going Clear illuminated a lot of the dark and inhuman practices that Cruise’s religion participates in on a regular basis, and it’s pretty clear that Cruise is aware of this stuff on some level. I know most people draw a moral line when it comes to supporting or boycotting certain celebrities depending on their personal lives and beliefs, but I enjoy being a paragon of paradoxes and will continue to see (and look forward to) Tom Cruise’s movies while acknowledging that he is probably not a good person.
But, I may finally have reason to dislike both Cruise’s personal and professional choices! Hooray! Variety reports that Cruise is in talks to headline Universal’s reboot of The Mummy. Will he be the bandaged one? Nothing’s clear (tee hee) at this point, but it’s obvious that Universal wants to nab a big star in order to anchor down this whole shared universe plan they have for their Monsters properties.
I think most of us agree that the Universal Monsters being part of a more action-oriented shared universe is a dumb idea (just look at the uninteresting Dracula Untold that was finagled with at the last minute to try and act as a universe starter), but I’m not against the Monsters sharing screen-time. They’ve already done so in the past with Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, the Abbott & Costello movies, and many others. It’s just the whole tone of this endeavor (and the involvement of Damien Thorne wannabe Alex Kurtzman) that feels wrong, and Cruise’s involvement would seem to give us a teeny glimpse into the kind of four-quadrant appeal the folks at Universal are going for.
Nothing’s set in stone just yet, but with The Mummy slated for MArch of 2017, expect something substantial to land in the next few months. Universal wants to get on this train sooner rather than later.
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