One of the biggest roles Brendan Fraser had was in the Mummy trilogy, and in an interview with Variety, he opened up about doing another movie and why the Tom Cruise reboot failed. His movies spanned from 1999 to 2008, while Universal’s attempt at a monster universe with the Mission: Impossible star, but from the first film, it died.
Many factors can lead to a film’s success or failure. For Brendan Fraser, the Tom Cruise Mummy movie failed due to a simple reason: a lack of fun. To him, that’s what made his trilogy work versus the Universal reboot. In his mind, it should be “a thriller ride” and not “straight-ahead horror.”
With a budget of $125 million, Universal was disappointed with the 2017 reboot’s $409 million worldwide box office performance. The movie was slammed by critics and audiences, receiving a 15% from critics and 35% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes.
Brendan Fraser weighs in on Mummy 4 and the Tom Cruise movie
Brendan Fraser became a huge star in the 90s and mid-00s with The Mummy. The 1999 movie spawned sequels The Mummy Returns in 2001 and 2008’s Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. While he is unsure “how it would work,” he would return “if someone came up with the right conceit.”
While he has been acting consistently over the years, the actor fell out of the mainstream until recently. For superhero fans, he had kept their attention with the HBO Max series Doom Patrol. He is gaining critical praise for his role in The Whale, which could see Oscar nominations for the film and him for his leading performance. He was going to be in Batgirl, but the film was shelved earlier this year. Still, he has plenty of work with Brothers with Josh Brolin and Peter Dinklage, Killers of the Flower Moon with Leonardo DiCaprio, and Behind the Curtain of Night.
