There have been a lot of conflicting stories flying around lately concerning the pending third Mummy movie. Most of them seem to involve Brendan Fraser. For instance, a few months ago we heard that Fraser was already signed for The Mummy 3, and that his character was in the script. But since then the whole Fraser thing has become muddled. Everyone keeps saying “if” he agrees to do the movie or he “might consider” doing The Mummy 3. So what’s the deal? Isn’t he already contracted?
Well, one of the wilder rumors flying across my desk tonight says that the reason for all the confusion is that he’s holding out for more money. Word from a couple of our secret scoopers is that despite what you may have heard, Fraser has read the script, it sucks, and so he won’t touch it unless they back up a Brinks truck. The big bad rumor is that it’s not just Fraser that hates the script, everyone involved does, including the studio. So their point of contention is not whether or not the movie will be good (everyone agrees it won’t), but how much they’ll have to pay Brendan to roll around in the mud for another piece of crap flick.
Meanwhile, Rachel Weisz has been pretty open about being willing to come back, but part of the problem in getting a firm commitment from her may be that the franchise’s former godfather Stephen Sommers has nothing to do with this one. Look, it’s easy to pick apart his first two Mummy movies, but whatever flaws they might have I think they’re a lot of fun. Sommers knows how to deliver goofy, all-out monster fun. His name has been slapped on The Mummy 3, but it’s just a credit. He’s out. Without him, they’ve gone to director Rob Cohen. Stealth anyone? The guy has a pretty spotty reputation. Rachel may not be comfortable with Sommers and from what our spy says the script is so terrible that even Universal wouldn’t blame her for bailing out. If even the studio is that unhappy with the script, you’ve got to wonder how long it will be before they tell Brendan they aren’t paying and simply bring in a cast of replacement players to make the thing on the cheap and either shove it out in a crap month like January just to milk whatever they can from it, or shove it out direct to DVD.
But like anything we bring you from an anonymous scooper, take the above with a big grain of salt. We’re not going to believe any of it until we get some sort of serious confirmation, and neither should you. It’s a rumor until we’re able to say otherwise.
