The Mummy(2017) is directed by Alex Kurtzman.
When did you come ontoThe Mummy?
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And what was the context they approached you under?
Was it with a mind to direct?
Actually no, it wasnt.
Originally it was just to produce.
But it didnt start with Dark Universe, it actually just started withThe Mummy.
And what state was it in when they approached you?
It was just an idea?
It was an idea.
No, they had nothing, it was We want to doThe Mummyagain, what do you think?
Its a remake, its a franchise starter, its a universe launcher, its a Tom Cruise movie.
How heavy a burden was that load to carry when trying to establish the films own identity?
I loved the Karloff film as a kid.
I tend to be drawn to the things that I had an association with when I was a kid.
Those are the things that excite me the most.
Yes, its daunting in that everybody else has a version of that story.
So now youve got two major events happening and thats going to be something special.
But actually, youre really quite restrained with your action.
Was there ever any temptation to go more action heavy?
Or even studio pressure?
Not really, no.
I think that we wanted to pay tribute to the Monster films.
And you have to be scared.
You have to be.
I could not in good conscience make a monster movie without scaring people.
That just wouldve not delivered on the promise of what you expect from a monster movie.
Thats actually one of the things I like most about it, its creepy in places.
Did that come intuitively to you?
Were you confident in making it scary?
You know, I am a huge horror fan, and have been since I was 12.
I watch everything I can possibly get my hands on.
Some directors build their horror on showing you a lot of violence.
Some directors build there horror on showing you none.
I love that and I love the challenge of that.
Were there horror movies, I mean obviouslyThe Mummy, but particular horror movies you referenced?
Tom (Cruise) and I watched it quite a bit.
He does it with mood and long takes and quiet and sound and light.
He went to those real locations, they shot it in Iraq.
He just puts you in a world.
Tom has worked with Kubrick.
So, to be able to work with an actor who has worked with Kubrick is quite something.
We talked aboutEyes Wide Shuta lot.
We talked about what Tom calls an atonal rhythm that Kubrick had in all of his films.
you might take the scene inThe Shiningbetween Danny and Scatman Crothers character.
And so we talked a lot about that.
We watched a lot of Hitchcock.
A lot of Hitchcock.
As any director who ever wants to make a movie must and does.
That mustve been fun.
Its more than fun.
You kind of cant believe youre having the conversation.
As a lover of those films, you constantly wonder How did he do those things?
And I think that kind of thing, for me as a young director, is a gift.
You get away with a lot for a PG 13.
Did you have to negotiate for it?
I can look at, evenRaidersby todays standards, guys faces melting.
Those movies scared the shit out of me as a kid and yet they werent R rated films.
And I have to remember what was scary about seeing things likeRaidersorTemple Of DoomorJaws.
Take a look atJurassic Worlda couple of years ago.
And there was never any discussion about doing an R rated version?
No, not really.
Not at this scale and scope.
Horror movies, of which I consider myself a diehard fan, are more limited in terms of audience.
Its a very specific genre audience and it doesnt always reach a global audience.
Sometimes it does, but rarely, and we endeavoured to make a much larger movie than that.
In fact, youre making a whole universe of movies like that.Bride Of Frankensteinis next.
Bride Of Frankensteinis a little lower down the list, I think.
In terms of easy sells?
Are you having a tough time with it?
David Koepp wrote a brilliant script.
Heres the weird thing aboutBride Of Frankenstein.
It is one of the weirdest movies youll ever see in your life.
It is such a strange film.
Theres almost no screen time with her.
And yet everybody remembers the iconic look, the hair, who she was.
Articles have been written, theres Halloween costumes.
Which is gonna be an interesting thing to tackle in this day and age.
It might be something we subvert in our film.
Mostly because shes not really a character yet based on the originalBride Of Frankenstein.
He spends the rest of the movie not in the bandages, but you dont remember that.
You remember him in the bandages.
And I think thats something we cant mess around with.
Thats been in development for a while.
Is that still something you guys…?
And is it the same script?
There were scripts before the Dark Universe initiative came up, before I was involved.
For me,Creatureis one of the first action horror films.
Whats the process of writing a script for Michael Bay?
And then onTransformerswe started from scratch.
Youre starting with ok, that could be anything.
Ill admit I have not watched any of the films after the second one.
I dont know what happens after the ones that we wrote.
But we were kind of searching for a tone there.
I had a lot of fun with him sometimes.
There were hard days and there were great days.
But I could probably say that about any director that I worked with.
Whats your take on it?
I believe those can be fantastic.
Are you talking about my take on writers rooms?
Writers rooms for movies.
I think they can be great.
I come from television, so Im very familiar with writers rooms.
I think an effective writers room can be wonderful.
I dont believe that film studios have fully understood or adopted what it means to work a writers room.
Studios dont get that yet, they dont really understand that.
I have yet to see them allow writers rooms to function to their full capacity.
Whats challenging about writers rooms is that you have to let the process work.
When youre a feature writer they dont structure it the same way.
I want to believe that it can be because I think it can be great.
Whats your favourite Jason Statham film?
My favourite Jason Statham film?
Are you gonna hate me if I tell you Im not wildly familiar with Jason Statham films?
I wont hate you.
Ok, so lets sayThe Transporter.
Alex Kurtzman, thank you very much!
The Mummyis in UK cinemas from June 9th.
