The Huntsman receives April 2016 release

Just a day after Universal announced Alex Kurtzman would be directing the reboot of The Mummy they promptly turned around and delayed it to June 24, 2016. Taking its place will The Huntsman, the spin-off from the 2012 fairy tale Snow White and the Huntsman.


Universal recently made it known that they had basically fired Kristen Stewart from the franchise after her affair with director Rupert Sanders and were intending on continuing the story primarily with Chris Hemsworth's character, the Huntsman. It seems they weren't kidding as the spin-off now has a release date of April 22, 2016. The film already has Frank Darabont attached to direct and Chris Hemsworth will be returning to reprise the role and, oddly enough, Charlize Theron will also return.

Seeing how bad Snow White and the Huntsman was I don't have much interest in this one. Chris Hemsworth is nice to look at and all but even he couldn't save that movie. The only draw is Charlie Theron's return. She was the only good part about that movie.

Alex Kurtzman to direct Mummy reboot

Universal has hired director Alex Kurtzman to direct their upcoming reboot of The Mummy. This comes after Kurtzman was hired alongside Chris Morgan to lead the new Universal Monsters crossover series. He is now the third director to be given the job. Previously Andy Muschietti and Len Wiseman had been hired but both left the project after a short period of time.

This reboot has a 2016 release date set so it would be in Universal's best interest to get this project going. Kurtzman is best known for his screenwriting partnership with Roberto Orci where they wrote blockbuster films such as Transformers, Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. This will be his first project without Orci.
All that we know about this new interpretation of The Mummy is it will be set in the present day and will be an action-adventure type film. However, it will not be a direct reboot of the films that starred Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. There will be new plot points and new characters.

In addition to The Mummy, Kurtzman has been hired by Sony to direct Venom, an upcoming Spider-Man spinoff. However, with the recent disappointment with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and The Amazing Spider-Man 3 being delayed until 2018 the fate of Venom is kind of in limbo. No one really knows if it's even going to happen anymore.