Byte: Reimagining The Mummy

0:00On bite, excerpts from the roundtable on the mummy. This is exploring humanity through sci-fi. This rebrand continues my mission to get a better understanding of ourselves through sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and comics as our motive exploration. Thanks to Warner Brothers, we'll hear from those who created the film. Producer James Wan, on choosing Lee Cronin to direct. We've been a big fan of Lee's for a while since his previous movies, and we just felt that we wanted to do something different, that we wanted it to be a scary film, we wanted it to be visceral in a powerful way, to sort of stand it away from the previous post iterations of the mummy franchises. And we met with Lee, he felt the same way. And so we just loved him, we loved his vision for it, and it just felt like it was the right direction to go in. More on the mummy in just a moment. Lee Cronin, on the process of making the film,

1:02would comment from producer James Wan. The process kind of started, obviously, I huge respect for both you guys and what you've done in the genre and continue to do. And then we had a conversation. It was a very simple conversation in a lot of ways, which was, I think you kind of started with, what do you think of the mummy? And I'm like, I don't really think about it. And then also, what about a horror movie? What about a real horror movie? That's a real scary version of it. Yeah, that title, you know, that's the blood, the center blood in my nose when I hear that. That really attracted me in kind of the conversation. That was what you sort of excited in the first place of the possibility of me pursuing this. Because you've got to swing every opportunity you get to make a movie. I treated it like it could be my last. So you've got to swing for the fences each time. And it felt like there was a real opportunity to just do something genuinely different and not repeat tricks, you know? And by the way, that's literally what you did with this film. It is so freaking different to all the previous mummy movies. And you swung for the fences and I think it paid off, you know, in spade. And I think, you know, movies like there's needs to be, you know,

2:03when you're making horror movies at this level, right? You know, when it's not so, it's not such a big branded IP, you need to do something special. And this is what you brought to it, that special sauce. I appreciate that. His attraction to Egyptian lore with Lee Kronin and James Wan. I was always attracted to Egyptian lore from when I was young. Right. And I remember one specific occasion. What we call our pulling a sickie, I don't know what you call it here, but like, you know, not going to school. Having a headache one day, but turning it into a week. But then, because my imagination would always be turning, I ended up taking it upon myself to do a project on Ancient Egypt. It wasn't tasked to me. So I always had an interest. And I've always been interested in buried secrets, I think, as a big part. Because the notion of a buried secret in practical terms also echoes with the familial themes I'd like to play around with. And that idea that there's only secrets and lies within families. So I said history and lore, and also places where there is dark corners that can be that are undiscovered, that you can argue there's something else going on in there.

3:07But it's also important. But it's also buried ancient secrets. Which makes it extra special. And scary as well, which is why it works for a horror movie. It doesn't matter of what age you are. The human nature is we want mysteries. We love mysteries. We live stories. From the dawn of time, we've set around campfires, telling stories. And I feel like that's what we're doing today. That's the great metaphor with cinema, right? We're sitting in a dark space, watching someone tell us a story. Which in this case is yourself, us, right? And the whole Egyptian mythology is still so deep and so rich. And there's just something so cool about it. Look for the mummy at a theater near you. Coming up, I'll be walking along with other survivors and volunteers in purple stride to fight pancreatic cancer. I'll be talking to Jonathan Frakes Kitty-Win in arm and shimmerment about this. It's called purple stride, as my wife and I join the walk. Please click on the link in the show notes so you can sponsor my walk.

4:10I would greatly appreciate it. It could help save some lives. For bite, this is Chaudy Tolato.