STACK September 2017 Issue 155

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From Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney Jr.,
to Christopher Lee and Arnold Vosloo,
The Mummy is one of the screen’s
most enduring monsters. Now Sofia Boutella
joins the long lineage of evil Egyptians, as
the first female movie mummy, Princess
Ahmanet. However, producer and director
Alex Kurtzman reveals that the character
didn’t start out that way.
“Originally it was a man, and as we were
developing drafts it didn’t feel fresh enough.
There were variations on the story and things
were kind of interesting, but they never really
grabbed my attention,” he says. “A voice in my
head kept saying ‘make it a woman’. Once I
listened to that voice, a whole new story area
opened up and I suddenly got very inspired by
it, very connected to her story. I felt like we
had something topical to address there.”
When her claim on the throne is threatened
by the arrival of a baby brother, Princess
Ahmanet invokes Set, the Egyptian God of
Death, to reclaim what is rightfully hers, and
is punished by being mummified alive and
buried in a hidden tomb in the Middle East.
“For me, one of the key defining elements
of the Universal Monster films is that they
really are a genre unto themselves. You fear
the monster and you fearforthe monster,”
says Kurtzman. “She needed a story you
could connect to and understand. I loved the
idea that she’d been promised all the same
things that any man would be promised if he
were the son of a pharaoh. And it all got taken
away from her, and she’s now going after
what she believes she deserves.”
Kurtzman adds that once the monster’s
gender was decided, Boutella was his first
and only choice for the role of Ahmanet.
However, having just played Jayla in Star
Trek Beyond, the actress was understandably
reluctant at first to return to the makeup chair
for a lengthy stretch.
“Aside from the makeup issues, she
wanted to know what tone this movie was
going to take,” explains Kurtzman. “When
she came to meet with me, I’d already done
a tremendous amount of design work with
her face as the mummy, and I think she was
struck by the fact that I wasn’t kidding when
I said ‘You have to do this movie, you are
the only person for this part.’ We got along
incredibly well and I think she understood that
we were trying to honour the heritage of the
Universal Monsters and do something very
different, and that she was going to be a very
powerful character.”
Another point of difference in Kurtzman’s
take on The Mummy is that a majority of
the film is set in London, not Egypt. The
director explains that the shift in location was
important in terms of bringing the story into
the modern era, as well as drawing on the
city’s deep foundations in history.
“One of the things I love about London
is that it’s an incredible collision of ancient
and modern. As the archaeologist in the film
notes, it’s a city literally built on centuries
You fear the monster and
you fear for the monster...
The latest Mummy movie is a dark universe away from the Indiana Jones-
like antics of the 1999 film starring Brendan Fraser, but one movie it does
curiously resemble is Tobe Hooper’s 1986 cult sci-fi spectacular Lifeforce.
Based on Colin Wilson’s novel Space Vampires, Hooper’s film features an
ancient evil being brought to London in the form of a beautiful – and naked – alien
woman (Mathilda May), who has a strange psychic and romantic connection with the
astronaut (Steve Railsback) who freed her from her crystal tomb inside Halley’s Comet.
Moreover, once on Earth, her victims are drained of life energy and return as mummified zombies
that wreak havoc on the British capital.
Those who love this insane cult masterpiece will be quick to notice the
similarities (sans nudity, of course) with The Mummy, and we suspect
Alex Kurtzman may have been unconsciously inspired by Hooper’s film,
even though he stated otherwise when the question was asked.
“That’s funny, what an amazing reference! It wasn’t [an influence],
but I know the film well. Thank you for that, it’s very kind of you.”
016 SEPTEMBER 2017
visit DVD&BD FEATURE
LONDON FALLING
Tom Cruise and director
Alex Kurtzman
on the set
Producer and director Alex Kurtzman talks about
resurrecting Universal’s iconic monster for a new
generation in The Mummy. Words Scott Hocking