Clive Barker Still Hopes to Make His Reimagining of The Mummy

Mummies have been used in horror films for decades, yet only a few entries into the genre have been allowed to use the official "The Mummy" title, and despite the 2017 The Mummy being both a critical and financial disappointment, horror icon Clive Barker is still hoping he'll get the chance to bring his take on the material to life at some point in the future. His vision for the narrative was being developed in the '80s, long before the Brendan Fraser-starring adventure film landed on the big screen, with Barker's plans being to embrace the much more macabre components of the concept.

"It had the first gender change.., transsexual… so we were ahead of the curve," Barker shared with the Post Mortem podcast. "So there's a boy born… a boy-child born at the beginning of the narrative, who is obviously significant in the narrative… but we cut 20 years and there's no sign of this guy. Apparently. There is a wonderfully strange, mysterious woman who is part of the narrative, a very important part of the narrative – I don't want to say too much because we're gonna make this one day… I hope… we should talk to Netflix."

He continued, "The little boy… who is born at the beginning of the narrative… has become this exquisite woman. And a major part of a modern-day narrative about The Mummy. But this is our naivete, Mick [Garris]. How could we ever have thought, in 1989, when we turned this in, that they would say, 'Ah, great!' I think I've had a slightly naïve attitude [towards] the suits."

While the 2017 The Mummy did see the titular character reimagined as female, clearly Barker's plans were a bit more ambitious and likely would have been received with even more controversy in the '80s than today. However, given the ways in which 2020's The Invisible Man took a familiar title and premise to reimagine it in an unexpected way, it's hard to rule out whatever plans Barker might have had entirely, which even he seems to still hope could happen.

Following the release of The Invisible Man, new takes on The Wolf Man and Dracula have headed into development, while a number of other Universal Monster reboots are rumored to be moving forward.

Stay tuned for updates on the possible future of The Mummy.

Would you like to see Barker's version of the movie? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars.