Director Alex Kurtzman Opens Up About Universal's 'Dark Universe' Franchise And What He Learned From Tom Cruise's 'The Mummy.'
Do you remember The Dark Universe, when Universal announced an Avengers-like franchise where the classic monsters of yesteryear (Dracula, Wolfman, Frankenstein's Monster, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Mummy, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) were going to team up to save the world? Don't worry. Most people have forgotten by now too.
Writer/producer/director Alex Kurtzman, one of the creatives behind the multi-movie endeavor, hasn't put the past behind him. Rather, he did what any person who faced failure does, he learned from it. While guesting on The Playlist's Bingeworthy Podcast, Kurtzman and writer Jenny Lumet discuss how they have taken the failure of the project as a positive learning experience. 2017's The Mummy, one of the few recent box office flops for actor Tom Cruise, was to be the second in the franchise behind Dracula Untold, the jumping off point for The Dark Universe. Both were not well received by critics or audiences.
The film was the first time Kurtzman took the director's seat for a major studio production. Even with his past record of successful collaborations on franchises such as Star Trek and Transformers.
"I tend to subscribe to the point of view that you learn nothing from your successes, and you learn everything from your failures. 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 inexplicably 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 added,
"And 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. 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."
It is always a breath of fresh air when a person in Hollywood not only learns from their mistakes but is open enough to talk about them, passing their experiences on to others who are coming up in the industry. Kurtzman has since gone on to produce the Star Trek television franchise for Paramount+ as well as the follow-up series The Man Who Fell To Earth starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, a continuation of the film of the same title starring David Bowe.
