2017’s The Mummy was going to be the dawn of a new franchise for Universal. The action reboot starring Tom Cruise and Annabelle Wallis was intended to kick off the studio’s planned Dark Universe, which would establish a world of new takes for its popular monster properties. This franchise would feature Russell Crowe’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Johnny Depp’s Invisible Man and Javier Bardem’s Frankenstein. But when The Mummy made $80 million domestically off a $125 million budget, the Dark Universe suffered a quick death.
Three years after starring in the box office flop, Annabelle Wallis admits she still gets questions about the failed franchise she shared with Tom Cruise. Thankfully, she doesn’t seem to mind. Here’s why:
I don’t think they ever will. He’s Tom Cruise. He’s his own thing. He’s such a movie star, and he does his own bloody stunts! He means business, and he loves this business. He’s a cinephile. I think people are in awe of that kind of passion and love for cinema and a desire to excel, to keep growing and keep pushing boundaries. He’s on a different level.
Annabelle Wallis sounds like she’s still over the moon that she got to share the screen with a movie legend, even if The Mummy was a disappointment critically and commercially. The 35-year-old actress will especially remember her work with Tom Cruise on the remake because of the following:
You know, I ticked a box. I got to run on-screen with him, but he told me no at first. He said, ‘Nobody runs on-screen [with me],’ and I said, ‘But I’m a really good runner.’ So, I would time my treadmill so that he’d walk in and see me run. And then he added all these running scenes. So, that was it. It was, like, better than an Oscar. I was so happy! (Laughs.) I was so happy that I got to run on-screen with Tom Cruise. But I don’t think it ever goes away and I hope it never does. It’s so wonderful to be excited by someone and in awe of what they’ve achieved in their lives. Yeah, good on him. And I hope the questions never stop. I love talking about him. It’s really cool.
Yeah, okay, this is awesome. Tom Cruise’s run is part of what makes the actor who he is, and Annabelle Wallis actually got to be his sprinting buddy for The Mummy. Has that happened before with anyone else? Surely it's an exclusive club. Going off of Wallis’ recent words to The Hollywood Reporter, she’s remained positive about her work on The Mummy and it doesn’t seem to be a rough topic for her at all.
She has, however, been open about being disappointed that their kissing scene got cut. The actress was pretty excited to smooch with the Top Gun actor for the movie to get bragging rights with her friends and family, but on the day of the scene, Cruise decided he was “not feeling that.” Oh, the sting of rejection! It must hit harder when it’s laid out by Jerry Maguire himself.
Moving forward, The Mummy may be back in its grave, but Universal movie monsters are making a comeback. After Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man became a huge success for the studio, Universal has been announcing new projects and exciting left and right, including Ryan Gosling starring in a modern take on The Wolfman, The Invitation's Karyn Kusama making a Dracula movie and a Bride of Frankenstein movie also being in the works. The Mummy screenwriter David Koepp is writing the latter – we have some great ideas for directors to take on the female Frankenstein property.
Check back here on CinemaBlend for more updates on how Universal’s movie monsters are being retold for the big screen.
