By this time, almost everyone knows how "The Mummy" remake was a bit of a disappointment. The movie got a slew of negative reviews, mostly from people who criticized Universal's decision to pool all of its "Dark Universe" monsters in one hurried exposition. It currently has a 16% rating on Rotten Tomatoes; a feat in itself considering that Hollywood star Tom Cruise is in the lead.
Tom Cruise was given a fair amount of control
But what if, instead of propelling "The Mummy" into a creative pinnacle, Tom Cruise caused the opposite and pulled it rock-bottom?
This was the core of a Variety's exclusive article, which reports that Cruise, being too controlling, was one of the reasons why "The Mummy" became such a flop.
“Movies aren’t made by single people; it’s a team effort," so Cruise said in his improvised speech during the premiere of the remake. However, according to some sources who were "close to the production" of the film, the adage did not hold true for Cruise's behavior on-set. It was more like a one-man show than a team, the sources seem to imply — with Cruise having full creative oversight on the movie's production and dictating "even the smallest decisions."
"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," the Variety article pointed out.
This was not so hard to believe, as even Universal has given Cruise the reins to most of the aspects during the making of the film. Approving the scripts, decisions in post-production and even in the strategies to effectively market and release the film — Cruise had a say in them all.
It was his idea to push a June premiere, after all, according to the sources.
Universal states Tom Cruise's competence
Still, would this automatically mean that whatever Tom Cruise touches becomes bad? Should he have let director Alex Kurtzman and the rest of the team provide more input than (allegedly) just follow the orders?
Universal begs to disagree. While it was their decision to give Cruise a level of power over the film's production, they never believed that the actor had a negative influence on the movie as a whole. An official statement by the company said that Cruise approaches every project with dedication and commitment that is "unmatched" by most people in the industry.
"The Mummy" opened to $32 million, while the price to make it was about $190 million. Whether this is because of an oversight by Tom Cruise or caused by any other factor, it's safe to say that the movie opened to less than the mighty fanfare it was expected to be.
