At the exact time Warner Bros. was cleaning up at the Oscars in early March thanks to “One Battle After Another” and “Sinners,” Lee Cronin was a short drive away on the studio’s lot, three-quarters into a 24-hour shift putting the finishing touches to his latest horror feature.
“Lee Cronin’s The Mummy” was finally completed at around 7.30 a.m. on the Monday, probably just as the last stragglers were stumbling, perhaps mummy-like, out of the post-ceremony parties.
“I remember staring up at the water tower, where they’d already put up a big ‘Congratulations’ sign, and just standing there, shaking and exhausted, and thinking: this is a wild, wild moment,” Cronin tells Variety.
Less than five weeks on from that wild moment on the WB lot, “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy” — a balls-to-the-wall, excessively gory and unashamedly R-rated take on one of cinema’s classic scare stories — is hitting cinemas.
Having turned heads with his deeply unsettling debut “The Hole in the Ground,” and brought one of horror’s best-loved franchises its biggest box office to date with the bloodsoaked “Evil Dead Rise” ($147 million worldwide off a sub-$20 million budget), Cronin’s third feature underlines the Irishman’s credentials as one of the modern genre world’s most exciting and unique voices. So unique, in fact, that he’s in the title.
But “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy,” which puts Cronin among a handful of directors to be named in their own movie, is called “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy” for a number of good reasons. Chief among them: it was an idea pitched by horror maestro Jason Blum, who produces for Blumhouse alongside fellow scare specialist James Wan for Atomic Monster (plus Cronin’s longtime producer John Keville for their new banner Wicked/Good).
But the film is also unlike any other entry in the near century-old franchise about a resurrected bandage-swathed Egyptian baddie. It’s also very — very — different to Universal’s Brendan Fraser-fronted action adventure series (the long-awaited fourth instalment of which was formally announced while it was in production — something that Blumhouse has lent into with a series of unusual marketing posts on X).
Shot between Ireland and Spain and starring Jack Reynor, Laia Costa and May Calamawy, Cronin’s distinctive spin on the well-trodden story — with a budget in the mid-$20 million range — sees an expat American family in Egypt devastated by the abduction of their young daughter Katie. Eight years on, with the family having relocated to New Mexico, Katie is suddenly found tightly sealed inside a mysterious tomb. She’s alive but badly deformed and barely able to move or speak. But who is she really? What follows is a crescendo of bloody madness, including a gruesome toenail cutting scene that shouldn’t be viewed while eating, a grandma being eaten alive by a pack of coyotes and a truly bonkers wake that erupts into laugh-out-loud violence thanks to a pair of dentures. It’s OTT and deliberately so.
“It was a movie where I definitely wanted to swing for the fences,” admits Cronin.
Speaking from his from his home in rural Ireland, a home (named Overlook, of course) he admits he’s barely seen since buying it a year ago due to work, Cronin discusses teaming up with some of horror’s biggest names to take on a cinematic icon, the potential for sequels, what’s coming next from his new production company and how James Wan’s mid-screening bathroom trip sparked an online rumor.
What’s the story behind, not just you doing your own take on the The Mummy and joining such a famed cinematic universe, but also bringing acclaimed horror icons James Wan and Jason Blum on board, alongside Warner Bros.
It actually started with a conversation with James Wan where he just said, ‘What would you think about making a Mummy movie?’ It wasn’t screaming at me like the way ‘Evil Dead’ was screaming at me. But that was exactly the attraction — I wanted to come at something that wasn’t necessary overly familiar to me, something that wasn’t on my Mount Rushmore. I told this to James, and he goes, ‘What about trying to make a really terrifying Mummy movie?’ Now that’s worth thinking about. So I said, give me a couple of weeks. And I just started thinking about it. And the first thing was the notion of mummification for a different purpose. When you think of a mummy, people will think of a Pharaoh or a golden sarcophagus. And I landed on this notion of mummification for different purposes. What if a loved one was mummified? What if it wasn’t a Pharaoh, king, queen or prince? What if it was the average person? And that just creates a really, really simple ‘why?’ and from that, the horror started to leak in.
Had you worked with James before?
No. I think it was probably the first conversation we ever had. It was a great start to a relationship. Obviously, I know James by his work. So you’re always flattered when people just want to have a conversation. But what’s great as well is that I write and direct, and I build stuff up from the ground myself. So it wasn’t like, here’s a script for a Mummy film. It was just a conversation, a primer.
And James brought Jason Blum along?
Yeah, they had partnered up at that point. And then, through a variety of conversations and what Jason thought the title of the movie should be, with my name, and my relationship with Warner Brothers and the great people over at New Line, we had this powerful combination to go at it. The joy for me was that it was greenlit very quickly. But then there was the horror, in the most positive way, which was, oh my God, we’ve got a release date. We need to just get started.
What about Blumhouse’s deal with Universal?
Yeah, and they would have had a conversation. But obviously Universal have got their own ‘Mummy’ franchise, and in a couple of years time they’re going to bring out a new movie. They’re great movies, but more action-adventure. But this was very distinctly a horror. And New Line felt like the right fit. And I’ve got a first look deal over there now.
Watching the film, I didn’t get a sense of any ‘The Mummy’ film I’ve ever seen. There were elements of ‘The Exorcist’ and perhaps hints of ‘Annabelle’ and ‘Hereditary,’ and obviously a heavy splash of ‘Evil Dead.’ What were your influences going into this?
I actually get a real kick when people feel a connectivity to the things that have essentially polluted my mind. ‘The Exorcist’ is interesting, because I understand there are possession elements to this story. But what I’ve come to realize when people talk about ‘The Exorcist,’ it’s also the patience that’s in the movie. But I didn’t watch a single ‘Mummy’ movie until after I’d written my script and I went back and watch a Boris Karloff film. But there wasn’t any major influence from those particular places, apart from great respect and reverence. The two movies I kept going back to and thinking about, were ‘Seven’ and ‘Poltergeist.’ Poltergeist is a story about a missing kid, and a missing kid who, even when she’s brought home, the parents are still in doubt about what it is that lays in front of them. And it’s interesting when people talk about this movie and ‘Evil Dead’ and I’m like, well, that’s no surprise, because I did make an ‘Evil Dead’ movie, and I also made an ‘Evil Dead’ movie in my terms and my way with my voice.
Is this the first R-rated Mummy?
Quite possibly! It is definitely an R-rated movie and that is actually very possible.
You said it was Jason’s idea to call it ‘Lee Cronin’s The Mummy.’ What was behind that?
They’d read the script and everybody knew what it was and just said, ‘This movie has your fingerprints and DNA all over it. Why do you reckon if we did this?’ And honestly, I was flattered, but I was also unsure. And I was like, you’re gonna have to give me the weekend to think about it. As always, I just talked to the people that I trust and the people that I trust were like, ‘We know how you like to author your movies. Your fingerprints are on every single corner, so why not?’ And if someone as smart as Jason thinks it’s a good idea and he’s backing you, then you roll with it. And I just see this flattering more than anything. But it is a cool way of separating this movie from what’s come before.
I honestly assumed that it was to make sure there wasn’t any confusion with previous or future Mummy films. And maybe there was some legal or contractual elements to it. But this was a creative decision?
I think it’s probably a little bit of both. Because we wanted to create a distinct identity and not create confusion. And I hope when people watch the movie, they will just enjoy it for its freshness.
But you have now joined a very small group of directors to have their name credited in the title of their film. And this is only your third feature.
It certainly won’t be on everything from here on! My producer, John Keville, jokes about it and if I sit down, he’ll go, ‘Oh look, it’s Lee Cronin’s chair.’ But I think it was right for this movie, even from the business point of view. In the great marketing team at Warner Brothers, there’s a fantastic person there called Susie Shen who cuts the trailers. I remember speaking to her and about the title, and she said, ‘But this is what’s great — we get to play with people’s expectations. There’s nothing more valuable than being able to do that.’
What stage were you at when the fourth ‘The Mummy’ film at Universal with Brendan Fraser was announced?
I think there were some noises about it when we were in production, but it hadn’t been greenlit. It is now. But I always knew, even if they weren’t making another one, generationally there’d be a lot of people that would point back to that film in some way, shape or form. And that’s okay, because everybody has their cultural references and everybody looks for a shortcut in the comprehension of what something might be. As I said with that movie, number one, Brendan Fraser’s an awesome actor. And number two, Radio Silence, the guys directing the movie, are wonderful people. So as somebody that has now fed into Mummy lore in the wider world of cinema history, I’ll be looking forward to seeing what they do.
Universal’s next ‘The Mummy’ obviously isn’t out for another couple of years, but was there any sort of confusion about the two films?
Yeah, that would always exist a little bit. It’s interesting with movies, because there’s various code words for films and at one point, the internet found one of the code words we were using — Resurrected — and decided our film had been retitled. There’s always internet noise, which is fine and part and parcel of making a movie. There was also a very funny rumor that James Wan was so disgusted by the movie that he walked out of a screening. He’d gone to go to the bathroom! It was also the third time he’d seen the movie, and he came back in. But I’d rather have people talking about the thing you’re making than not.
I noticed that Blumhouse seem to be leaning into it. They posted several tweets explicitly saying, in capitals, that ‘Brendan Fraser is not in Lee Cronin’s The Mummy’
Yeah, it really caught fire. I think it’s important to be playful. As we got closer to finishing, I said to everybody involved that we should all be incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved, so let’s pump out our chests and own it. We’ve made something that is unique, and that will be very clear when people engage with the film. So we should be just really proud and really confident in what it is we’ve put out into the world.
Now you’ve brought your own unique Mummy into the world, any plans for sequels?
I’m gonna repeat the best advice I was ever given, by people that know how to make movie franchises work, which is the brilliant execs over at New Line, Rich Brener and Dave Neustadter, and they’ll always say: we let the audience decide. I’m very audience focused. But I absolutely adore the characters in this world, and we’ve dipped our toes into a much, much bigger lore. And if the audience really like this world and this universe, then there’s no doubt there would be conversations about how we would continue to grow it. And as the originator and creator of it, I’d want to be pretty involved with that. And I think there are great opportunities, because this movie is on a timeline. It’s about a family in the here and now in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that are being affected by the choice another family made in Egypt 3000 years ago. So, no pun intended, I think there is a sandpit.
This film is the first out of the box for your own production company, which I understand was called Doppelgangers but is now Wicked/Good?
Yeah, we bumped up against a little trademark issue so decided to rename the company to Wicked/Good, which kind of captures both sides of the movies I like. But it started with John (Keville), who’s my long-term producing partner, and Macdara (Kelleher) at Wild Atlantic Pictures. Just coming up to ‘Evil Dead Rises,’ I was really starting to find confidence in my own voice and starting to really see other filmmakers and what they were doing, and thinking, how could I support them in their endeavours? But with the success of ‘Evil Dead Rise’ and the fortification of a relationship with Warner Brothers, that suddenly started to turn into, no, this really needs to be a company with its own identity. And we’re delighted that we’re out of the gates already with our first production.
So what else is coming from Wicked/Good?
We’ve got a television show that we are in full partnership with Blumhouse and Atomic Monster on, which I created with Glenn Montgomery. It’s called ‘Spiral’ and it’s set in 1980s Ireland and dripping in folklore, repression and the strangeness of the Irish countryside. We’ve also got a found-footage movie that we’re producing, and a slasher movie with two brothers from Aruba, which is a really, really interesting and a different approach to the slasher genre. So we are looking at new talent and also established talent as well, and just looking for really interesting stories that can plant flags in exciting places within the genre.
So it’s not just going to be in horror
No, the wider genre. We’re interested in science fiction, we’re interested in comedy and we’re interested in thrillers. So no, it doesn’t have to have a ghost or a demon in it to be a Wicked/Good film, far from it. I think we’re just interested in stories that ideally can be theatrical or can be very noisy and certainly have some sort of event-like quality to them. And it’s very, very internationally focussed.
Do you have anything else in the pipeline to direct?
I have a project called ‘Box of Bones,’ which I was developing after I made ‘The Hole in the Ground,’ and I was developing it again after ‘Evil Dead Rise,’ and before I made ‘The Mummy.’ But it was kind of starting to just slip down the pecking order, and for some reason, it’s really, really appealing to me — it’s kind of burning in my mind. So I’m sitting at my new desk in my new house, and I’m like, ‘Is this the thing that’s going to start polluting the desk?’
You mentioned your Mount Rushmore before. ‘The Mummy’ may not have been on there, but what is? What cinematic world would you love to join?
‘Lord of the Rings,’ for sure. The fact that that’s over at New Line — I’d always be whispering a little bit of elvish the corner. That’s a world that I absolutely adore. I’d drop everything for an opportunity to play around in Middle-earth. And then, from a horror point of view, I would find it very hard not to have a swing at ol’ Freddy Krueger, because he haunted my nightmares throughout my entire childhood and still pops up about four times a year. But I actually think it’s unlikely that my next movie will be franchise adjacent — and that’s something that feels important to me right now.