‘The Mummy’ director Alex Kurtzman calls the Tom Cruise film the ‘biggest failure of my life’

Back in May of 2017, a couple of weeks before the release of “The Mummy” starring Tom Cruise, Universal revealed its plans for an entire cinematic collective of monster movies under the Dark Universe banner. “The Mummy” was expected to launch the nascent franchise with future installments focused on the Invisible Man (to be played by Johnny Depp), Frankenstein’s monster (with Javier Bardem in that role), and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Russell Crowe, who had a supporting part in “The Mummy”). But it wasn’t long before the Dark Universe became infamous. “The Mummy” was a critical flop that audiences in North America rejected and, soon enough, the entire enterprise was scrapped.

Reflecting on the film in an interview with The Playlist’s “Bingeworthy” podcast last week, director Alex Kurtzman called “The Mummy” “the biggest failure of my life.”

“I tend to subscribe to the point of view that you learn nothing from your successes, and you learn everything from your failures,” Kurtzman said. “And that was probably the biggest failure of my life, both personally and professionally. There’s about a million things I regret about it, but it also gave me so many gifts that are inexpressibly beautiful. I didn’t become a director until I made that movie, and it wasn’t because it was well-directed — it was because it wasn’t.”

Kurtzman hasn’t directed a feature film since, but directed four episodes of the new Showtime series “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” which he co-created with Jenny Lumet, who received a story credit on “The Mummy.”

“As brutal as it was, in many ways, and as many cooks in the kitchen as there were, I am very grateful for the opportunity to make those mistakes because it rebuilt me into a tougher person, and it also rebuilt me into a clearer filmmaker,” Kurtzman said of making “The Mummy” and how it changed his perspective on filmmaking. “And that has been a real gift, and I feel those gifts all the time because I’m very clear now when I have a feeling that doesn’t feel right — I am not quiet about it anymore. I will literally not proceed when I feel that feeling. It’s not worth it to me. And you can’t get to that place of gratitude until you’ve had that kind of experience.”

Said Lumet, “I don’t think that I could be here now without that experience.”

Much was written about “The Mummy” in the wake of its failure, with a focus on Cruise and his exacting process. In a piece about the film reported by Variety and published one week after its debut, supervising art director Frank Walsh was quoted as saying, “This is very much a film of two halves: before Tom and after Tom. I have heard the stories about how he drives everything and pushes and pushes, but it was amazing to work with him. The guy is a great filmmaker and knows his craft. He will walk onto a set and tell the director what to do, say ‘that’s not the right lens,’ ask about the sets, and as long as you don’t fluff what you’re saying to him … he’s easy to work for.”

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