It looks like Australia’s own Russell Crowe (shut up New Zealand) might be the latest addition to the host of huge stars signing on for Universal Pictures’ classic monster movie universe, the Gladiator apparently set to star alongside Mr. Mission Impossible himself Tom Cruise in The Mummy, in a Jekyll-like role Deadline reports.
While the difference between Jekyll-like and just Dr. Jekyll remains to be explained, the prospect of seeing big Rusty charging around as some huge monster is enough to get us excited already.
The film itself, according to IMDB, follows Cruise as Tyler Colt, a Navy Seal who after a mission into an ancient tomb goes south is plagued with visions of Ashurbanipal, King of Assyria, aka The Mummy. Directed by Alex Kurtzman – who is overseeing the studio’s entire monster movie franchise alongside Chris Morgan – the film is set to be released June 9th, 2017.
Written by Jon Spaihts, there’s no word yet on whether Rusty’s character might get a spinoff or not.
The studio does have an as yet unnamed film, set for release on April 13th, 2018, but that’s rumored to be The Invisible Man, which is itself rumored to be starring Johnny Depp.
A cornerstone of the studio’s output back in its early 20th Century heyday, Universal is going hard on the monster movie universe, following Marvel and DC hard by interweaving the films’ characters and titles such as The Phantom Of The Opera and Creature From The Black Lagoon all potentially joining the roster.
Anyway, this is all still speculation with no confirmation from Crowe or Universal, but let’s keep our fingers crossed. Currently, our promoting his new film The Nice Guys – co-starring Ryan Gosling – Big Russ has even hit SNL recently.
Good to see him out of the house.
