Brendan Fraser has confirmed he’s open to appearing in a reboot of The Mummy films.
On Sunday night, Fraser won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his heartbreaking portrayal of a 600lb recluse in The Whale.
The 54-year-old beat off competition from Austin Butler, Colin Farrell, Paul Mescal and Bill Nighy to pick up one of the biggest prizes in cinema at the 95th Academy Awards.
The win marked the completion of a triumphant return for Fraser. After soaring to international stardom in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he seemed to disappear from the spotlight.
This wasn’t through choice, but was actually a result of a traumatic experience Fraser went through in 2003 involving Philip Berk, the former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the organization that stages the Golden Globes.
With his Academy Award win though, the much-loved actor’s career-revival is complete, and he seems keen to return to one of his most iconic roles, as Rick O’Connell in the Mummy films.
The actor shot to fame after starring in the 1999 adventure film and its two sequels, making his last appearance in the franchise in 2008’s The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
Earlier this year, he confirmed he was open to revisiting the franchise.
Speaking during an interview on Deadline’s The Actor’s Side about his career, Fraser told host Peter Hammond that although he does not know any details about a reboot, he is not against returning.
He said: “It’s kind of an open-ended question for some time now. I’m not opposed to it, I don’t know an actor who doesn’t want a job.
“I don’t think I’ve been this famous and unsalaried at the same time in my professional life so sign me up!”
This isn’t the first time Fraser has spoken about the possibility of returning to the franchise.
Speaking to Variety, the 53-year-old said: “I don’t know how it would work. But I’d be open to it if someone came up with the right conceit.”
Universal did attempt to reboot the franchise in 2017, but didn’t include Fraser in the project, instead opting to cast Tom Cruise as the main character.
But the film was a panned by critics and lost around $95m at the box office, and plans for further installments were canned.
Discussing why the film failed to capture the magic of the originals, Fraser said it had been lacking one big thing – a sense of fun.
“It is hard to make that movie,” he said. “The ingredient that we had going for our Mummy, which I didn’t see in that film, was fun. That was what was lacking in that incarnation.
“It was too much of a straight-ahead horror movie. The Mummy should be a thrill ride, but not terrifying and scary.”
“I know how difficult it is to pull it off,” he added. “I tried to do it three times.”
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