Tom Cruise to star in Universal’s ‘The Mummy’ reboot?

Universal are certainly aiming high with their classic monsters reboot: Scarlet Johansson has already been rumoured for The Creature From the Black Lagoon, and earlier today we discovered that Angelina Jolie is being sought after to star in Bride of Frankenstein.

Variety is now reporting that Universal are looking at Tom Cruise to star in their reboot of The Mummy.

However, that’s not all. The report also states that Cruise is being tapped to play a major part in the development of Universal’s Marvel style cinematic universe, where all their monsters will connect somehow, with many famous creatures appearing in numerous films.

Variety makes it clear that Cruise is NOT being offered to produce, only star in The Mummy and further classic monster films.

Per Variety:

The studio tapped Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan last summer to help develop a universe for Universal where its classic monster movie library is front and center. Kurtzman is also on board to direct and will produce alongside Morgan as well as Sean Daniel. Universal is not commenting on casting speculation regarding the project.

Jon Spaihts is penning the script. Plot details are vague other than it will be set in present day, unlike the previous three installments starring Brendan Fraser.

Cruise isn’t expected to produce, but he will play a major part in development. Characters from the monster universe films are expected to crop up in each other’s installments before culminating in an “Avengers”-style tie-in film.

The plan is for a new monster movie to come out every year. The first of these, based on the character of the Mummy, will begin shooting in early 2016, with other pictures centered on Dracula, Van Helsing, Bride of Frankenstein and the Wolfman following in short order. To prepare, Kurtzman and Morgan obsessively watched Universal monster films made with the likes of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, and to broaden the sense of genre, augmented that with a diet of Hammer Horror pictures and other creepy works.