STACK #155 Sep 2017

DVD&BD FEATURE

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Producer and director Alex Kurtzman talks about resurrecting Universal’s iconic monster for a new generation in The Mummy . Words Scott Hocking

Tom Cruise and director Alex Kurtzman on the set

F rom Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney Jr., to Christopher Lee and Arnold Vosloo, The Mummy is one of the screen’s most enduring monsters. Now Sofia Boutella joins the long lineage of evil Egyptians, as the first female movie mummy, Princess Ahmanet. However, producer and director Alex Kurtzman reveals that the character didn’t start out that way. “Originally it was a man, and as we were developing drafts it didn’t feel fresh enough. There were variations on the story and things were kind of interesting, but they never really grabbed my attention,” he says. “A voice in my head kept saying ‘make it a woman’. Once I listened to that voice, a whole new story area opened up and I suddenly got very inspired by it, very connected to her story. I felt like we had something topical to address there.” When her claim on the throne is threatened

by the arrival of a baby brother, Princess Ahmanet invokes Set, the Egyptian God of Death, to reclaim what is rightfully hers, and is punished by being mummified alive and buried in a hidden tomb in the Middle East.

could connect to and understand. I loved the idea that she’d been promised all the same things that any man would be promised if he were the son of a pharaoh. And it all got taken away from her, and she’s now going after what she believes she deserves.” Kurtzman adds that once the monster’s gender was decided, Boutella was his first and only choice for the role of Ahmanet. However, having just played Jayla in Star Trek Beyond , the actress was understandably reluctant at first to return to the makeup chair for a lengthy stretch. “Aside from the makeup issues, she wanted to know what tone this movie was going to take,” explains Kurtzman. “When she came to meet with me, I’d already done a tremendous amount of design work with her face as the mummy, and I think she was struck by the fact that I wasn’t kidding when I said ‘You have to do this movie, you are the only person for this part.’ We got along incredibly well and I think she understood that we were trying to honour the heritage of the Universal Monsters and do something very different, and that she was going to be a very powerful character.” Another point of difference in Kurtzman’s take on The Mummy is that a majority of the film is set in London, not Egypt. The director explains that the shift in location was important in terms of bringing the story into the modern era, as well as drawing on the city’s deep foundations in history. “One of the things I love about London is that it’s an incredible collision of ancient and modern. As the archaeologist in the film notes, it’s a city literally built on centuries

You fear the monster and you fear for the monster...

“For me, one of the key defining elements of the Universal Monster films is that they really are a genre unto themselves. You fear the monster and you fear  for  the monster,” says Kurtzman. “She needed a story you

T he latest Mummy movie is a dark universe away from the Indiana Jones- like antics of the 1999 film starring Brendan Fraser, but one movie it does curiously resemble is Tobe Hooper’s 1986 cult sci-fi spectacular Lifeforce . Based on Colin Wilson’s novel Space Vampires , Hooper’s film features an ancient evil being brought to London in the form of a beautiful – and naked – alien woman (Mathilda May), who has a strange psychic and romantic connection with the astronaut (Steve Railsback) who freed her from her crystal tomb inside Halley’s Comet. Moreover, once on Earth, her victims are drained of life energy and return as mummified zombies that wreak havoc on the British capital. LONDON FALLING

Those who love this insane cult masterpiece will be quick to notice the similarities (sans nudity, of course) with The Mummy , and we suspect Alex Kurtzman may have been unconsciously inspired by Hooper’s film, even though he stated otherwise when the question was asked. “That’s funny, what an amazing reference! It wasn’t [an influence], but I know the film well. Thank you for that, it’s very kind of you.”

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