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LOS ANGELES, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Tom Cruise will star in Universal's upcoming remake of The Mummy. The 53-year-old actor will star alongside Algerian-French actress Sofia Boutella, who was first linked to the movie in December. Universal confirmed Cruise's involvement when announcing the film's release date of June 9, 2017 this week.
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Prometheus co-writer Jon Spaihts will write the script, with Star Trek Into Darkness producer Alex Kurtzman as director. Sean Daniel, who produced The Mummy trilogy starring Brendan Fraser, will co-produce with Kurtzman and Chris Morgan.
Boutella will reportedly play the titular monster in the reboot, which is expected to take place in the present day. The movie is intended to kick off a franchise featuring other Universal monsters, including Dracula, Frankenstein and the Invisible Man.
"The minute it's modern day, the rules change," Kurtzman told Slash Film of the film's setting in September. "What's really exciting for me is how do you take this ancient creature and make an audience believe that they exist in modern day?"
The original Mummy starring Boris Karloff opened in 1932, and was followed by nine more films in the following decades. The Stephen Sommers-directed Mummy trilogy with Fraser debuted in 1999, and earned $1.4 billion at the box office.
Cruise last starred in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, and will reprise Ethan Hunt in M:I 6 - Mission Impossible. He is also slated for sequels Top Gun 2 and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, in addition to Mena with Domhnall Gleeson.
