By now you probably know that Len Wiseman (Underworld, Total Recall (2012)) will be directing The Mummy remake. And you probably know that Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (co-writers of Transformers, Star Trek, Cowboys And Aliens) are producing it (and a Van Helsing remake), for Universal. The Mummy is one of the all time iconic Universal monsters, so you might have been wondering what direction this thing will take, and now Wiseman is acknowledging his intent.

He told Movieweb “There was skepticism. The difference between the two, if ‘The Mummy’ is to be the next movie for me, is that ‘The Mummy’ is a completely different film. It is a modern day take. It doesn’t have anything to do with the Brendan Fraser films, and it is not a remake of any kind… the pitch was to go with a much different tone. It was a Mummy like I’d never heard of before. Its nothing like what you would expect, at all, oddly. I was picturing Egypt, and the sand swept settings. The mummy wrappings. When I heard what they were wanting to actually do with it, it was shocking.” He added, “It’s horror. Its epic. It’s more of a modern day version of what would happen if we came across a mummy in our world today. It is pretty fascinating.”

Okay. So I like the fact that this will be a modern-day version and will eschew the aesthetics of the last 3 or 4 films in the franchise. I think Wiseman is visually talented, but I’ve never loved one of his movies. Then again the film’s screenwriter Jon Spaihts wrote that draft of Prometheus (aka Alien: Engineers) that was better than the Lindelof version – so who knows at this point?

At least it won’t be in the desert.