Just a few weeks ago news of Universal’s grand plans for their classic monsters made geeks like me go all aflutter, a new shared franchise for multiple movies bringing the likes of Dracula, The Mummy and Frankenstein back to the big screen. Chris Morgan and Alex Kurtzman were brought in to produce and develop the connected universe, Kurtzman was already being touted as a possible director for one of the films and now Universal are in advanced talks with him to helm The Mummy.

Len Wiseman (Die Hard 4.0) and Andy Muschetti (Mama) were previously attached to direct but owing to creative differences and scheduling conflicts, their respective deals were never closed. Universal’s Jeff Kirschenbaum explained why Kurtzman was the only choice to kickstart their ambitious new franchise. 

“Over the course of developing The Mummy, Alex has demonstrated such clarity and passion about this character and mythology. He knows why The Mummy has fascinated us for so long and how to bring that into an inventive, incredible new adventure. It became obvious that he is the perfect choice to be not only one of the narrative engineers of this new vision but its director as well.”

At this stage a couple of things remain unclear, firstly, which version of the script Kurtzman will be working from, he worked on a draft with his former writing partner Roberto Orci followed by subsequent drafts from Jon Spaihts (Prometheus) and Billy Ray (Captain Philips). Secondly, Kurtzman was attached to direct Sony’s Spider-Man spin-off Venom, currently there’s no release date in place for that so Kurtzman could still direct it if Sony don’t mind waiting. Proof of Kurtzman’s ability to merge different mythologies into one cohesive narrative can be found in the TV series of Sleepy Hollow, created by Kurtzman and Orci the hit series returns to our screens this September.

The Mummy is unleashed in cinemas June 26, 2016.