The Mummy reboot director Alex Kurtzman has said making the Tom Cruise action adventure was “probably the biggest failure of my life”, although he credited the experience with teaching him a lot about filmmaking.
The filmmaker. who is the show-runner on Showtime’s new sci-fi series The Man Who Fell to Earth starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Naomie Harris, spoke candidly about the “brutal” process of making the film which was meant to be a remake of the Mummy franchise.
Released in 2017, the production was met with unfavourable reviews and was unsuccessful commercially, despite Universal’s original intention to use the film to launch a cinematic Dark Universe with its movie monsters.
“I tend to subscribe to the point of view that you learn nothing from your successes, and you learn everything from your failures,” Kurtzman told the Bingeworthy podcast. “And that was probably the biggest failure of my life, both personally and professionally. There’s about a million things I regret about it, but it also gave me so many gifts that are inexpressibly beautiful. I didn’t become a director until I made that movie, and it wasn’t because it was well-directed — it was because it wasn’t.”
Kurtzman said the experience “rebuilt me into a tougher person, and it also rebuilt me into a clearer filmmaker”, which he described as a “real gift”.
“And as brutal as it was, in many ways, and as many cooks in the kitchen as there were, I am very grateful for the opportunity to make those mistakes because it rebuilt me into a tougher person, and it also rebuilt me into a clearer filmmaker,” he continued.
“And that has been a real gift, and I feel those gifts all the time because I’m very clear now when I have a feeling that doesn’t feel right — I am not quiet about it anymore. I will literally not proceed when I feel that feeling. It’s not worth it to me. And you can’t get to that place of gratitude until you’ve had that kind of experience.”
The film also starred Annabelle Wallis, Russell Crowe, Courtney B Vance, and Sofia Boutella.
Meanwhile, Kurtzman’s new series The Man Who Fell to Earth, an update of the 1976 cult sci-fi classic, follows an alien (played by Ejiofor) who arrives on Earth at a turning point in human evolution and must learn what it means to become human, even as he fights for the survival of his species.
The Man Who Fell to Earth begins on Showtime on 24th April with a UK date to be announced.
The latest issue of Radio Times is on sale now – subscribe now to get each issue delivered to your door. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times podcast with Jane Garvey.
