Tom Cruise had an “excessive” amount of control over The Mummy: Cruise “had an excessive amount of control, according to several people interviewed. The reboot of ‘The Mummy’ was supposed to be the start of a mega-franchise for Universal Pictures. But instead, it’s become a textbook case of a movie star run amok…. several sources close to the production say that Cruise exerted nearly complete creative oversight on The Mummy, essentially wearing all the hats and dictating even the smallest decisions on the set.
The studio let it happen, contractually: Universal, according to sources familiar with the matter, contractually guaranteed Cruise control of most aspects of the project, from script approval to post-production decisions. He also had a great deal of input on the film’s marketing and release strategy, these sources said, advocating for a June debut in a prime summer period.
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How much it really cost: With terrible reviews, The Mummy, which insiders say cost as much as $190 million to make and more than $100 million more to market and release worldwide, may struggle to make its money back.
Cruise exerted control at every level: He hand-selected Alex Kurtzman, a relatively untested director for The Mummy, someone who had no experience directing a big-budget action film, and someone who was mostly known as a producer/writer. Sources say Cruise behaved as the director as Kurtzman “struggled to adjust to scope of the project,” and Cruise would “often dictate the major action sequences and micro-managing the production, according to sources.”
Cruise hand-selected familiar screenwriters: He brought in Christopher McQuarrie and Dylan Kussman, two of his close friends, to basically rewrite the role into Standard Issue Tom Cruise Hero Role and they bulked up his role while weakening the role of the Girl Mummy. Universal wasn’t happy but they went along with it.
After all that, he worked on editing too: He brought in his favorite editor and “spent time in the editing suite overseeing the cutting, which everybody agreed wasn’t working. On the lot, there were differences of opinions about whether Cruise’s directions were improving a picture that had been troubled from its inception or whether they were turning a horror film into a Cruise infomercial.”
[From Variety]
Elizabeth Banks Apologizes For Huge Spielberg Mistake
I messed up. When referring to Steven Spielberg at the Women In Film Awards, I framed my comments about his films inaccurately. I want to be clear from the start that I take full responsibility for what I said and I’m sorry. When I made the comments, I was thinking of recent films Steven directed, it was not my intention to dismiss the import of the iconic #TheColorPurple. I made things worse by giving the impression that I was dismissing Shari Belafonte when she attempted to correct me. I spoke with Shari backstage and she was kind enough to forgive me. Those who have the privilege and honor of directing and producing films should be held to account for our mistakes, whether it’s about diversity or inaccurate statements. I’m very sorry,”
[Via Banks’ tweet]
