Brendan Fraser: Tom Cruise’s ‘Mummy’ reboot lacked ‘fun’

Brendan Fraser is back in the movie business and is “open” to revisiting the role that made him a star.

The now 53-year-old actor gained popularity in 1999’s “The Mummy” and its two sequels in 2001 and 2008.

Even all these years later, the former “Tarzan” star said he would take a chance on a fourth film.

“I don’t know how it would work but I’d be open to it if someone came up with the right conceit,” he recently told Variety.

As part of Fraser’s cover story, “Mummy” director Stephen Sommers told the mag the reasons he cast the actor in the first place.

“He could throw a punch and take a punch and he had a great sense of humor,” Sommers said. “You really like the guy. He never comes across as cocky or arrogant.”

Sommers shared that Fraser also did as many of his own stunts as he could, which resulted in the actor hurting his knee, but that he powered through filming.

“He was game for anything we threw at him,” Sommers added.

Back in 2017, Tom Cruise landed Fraser’s role in a “Mummy” reboot but the OG star noticed it was missing a certain something.

“It is hard to make that movie,” Fraser prefaced. “The ingredient that we had going for our ‘Mummy,’ which I didn’t see in that film, was fun. That was what was lacking in that incarnation. It was too much of a straight-ahead horror movie. ‘The Mummy’ should be a thrill ride, but not terrifying and scary.  

“I know how difficult it is to pull it off,” he added. “I tried to do it three times.”

Cruise’s movie didn’t gel too well with critics who mostly gave it bad reviews. Still, it grossed $410 million worldwide — but lost $95 million due to high production and marketing costs.

Fraser — who took a years-long break from Hollywood — has come back swinging with “The Whale.” The flick follows a 600-pound man attempting to reconnect with his estranged daughter. 

The role has earned him Oscar buzz and he received not one, but two, long standing ovations at the Venice Film Festival and also at the BFI London Film Festival.

“The Whale” hits theaters on Dec. 9.