We reported many months ago that Total Recall director Len Wiseman would be directing a reboot of The Mummy franchise at Universal and last we’d heard, a script was being written by Prometheus writer Jon Spaihts. Vulture is now reporting that Universal is so eager to get a script ready to shoot this year, that they’ve hired The Hunger Games screenwriter Billy Ray to pen a completely different script for the project. An insider told them that both scripts will probably end up fused together:
My suspicion is that one of them will be a structure-and-body man, and ones going to be a character-and-dialogue man and that theyll then just [combine] them together into one script, crediting both writers.”
Both scripts will be set in present day. Universal is targeting a summer 2014 release date. Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Star Trek) are attached to produce the new film.
The Mummy was previously rebooted in 1999 by director Stephen Sommers. It was followed by The Mummy Returns in 2001 and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor in 2008.
