“Lee Cronin’s The Mummy” doesn’t just carry its director’s name in its title. The horror film, which upends the mummy movie genre with a visceral and emotionally grounded twist, is also the first movie to come out of Lee Cronin’s new production company Wicked Good.
The company, founded by Cronin, John Keville and Macdara Kelleher, was born after the Irish filmmaker struck a first look deal with New Line, fresh off the smashing success of his 2023 film “Evil Dead Rise,” which grossed $147 million worldwide against a budget of just $15 million. That new installment in the “Evil Dead” franchise put a family twist on the possession story, offering up gory thrills with a very game cast.
Cronin’s dip into IP came after the filmmaker’s Sundance breakout “The Hole in the Ground” in 2019, and he’s been dreaming of running his own production company ever since. Now, as “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy” hits theaters from New Line, he’s filling a Wicked Good pipeline that he hopes will be a haven for exciting up-and-coming filmmakers in the genre space.
“Obviously, you’re looking for a great idea, and you’re thinking, ‘Even if it’s made for a few million dollars, can this have an impact at the cinema?’ because we are definitely theatrically focused in what we’re doing,” he told TheWrap during a recent Office With a View interview. “But I think what I look for more than anything is I’m pretty high energy in what I do, and in partners and creators that we’re looking to work with, I’m looking for that same kind of gutsy energy.”
Cronin revealed that Wicked Good is developing a found footage evil doll movie with Blumhouse that they hope to shoot this year, and they’re also developing a feature film with YouTubers CroesBros (2.79M subscribers) about their “uncanny brothers” videos. They’re even getting into the TV space with an Irish folklore series called “The Spiral” set in the 1980s that Cronin intends to direct.
But before all that, there’s “The Mummy,” for which Cronin has a very specific take. Read on to find out how he approached making the personal and deeply unsettling horror film, the future of Wicked Good and why he thinks his brand of horror is doing so well with audiences right now.
Take me back to the moment after “Evil Dead Rise” comes out. It’s a big hit. Everybody’s happy. What happens next? What are the conversations you’re having then, and what specifically spurred you to start your own production company?
It was always on my mind at that point, in terms of having lots of ideas and also being really inspired by what other people are creating. I was thinking, what will be the things that I’m driving, both the things that I make but also the things that I can support as a producer? And in a way, I suppose the success of “Evil Dead” turbocharged the plans, or at least made us go about the plan in a much more robust way. We got involved with a first look deal with New Line at Warner Bros. and suddenly it all just came to life.
At that point in time, it was considering what my next movie was going to be and then if we’re going to build other projects from the ground up, what are they going to be as well? And we’ve always, myself and John Keville and Macdara Kelleher, who are my business partners, we’ve always been really interested in quality over quantity. It doesn’t mean we don’t have lots of projects we’re developing, but we try and pick stuff that we really believe can happen. We don’t just speculate and try and bring a load of stuff together and see what happens. So with that in mind, early on we made a choice that we really wanted to work with some new talent and to look across the budget spectrum in terms of what we’re trying to do.
So “The Mummy” is a great starting point for us as our first Wicked Good production, but we’re also equally excited by a found footage movie that we’re developing and that we think we’re going to shoot this year, because that’s something that I’ve always loved, but I don’t think is my style in terms of as a director. So getting to actually flex those muscles in that way is really cool. We’re pushing into TV too. We’ve got, we’ve got two TV shows on the march, one of those I’ve been developing for a very long time, and the time is right now to push that forward. We’re in partnership with Blumhouse and Atomic Monster on that TV show. It’s called “The Spiral,” based in Ireland, and so that’s something we’ll be pushing forward with as well.
We want to make things that are entertaining and audience friendly, and even if that audience likes to be shocked and scared or laugh or be mystified in a certain way. We like our projects to have a strong genre identity. But that could be anything — personally I’d love to direct a movie like “Sicario” or “Saving Private Ryan.” So not necessarily just ghosts and monsters. We are looking much deeper into the spectacular genre space.
The found footage movie, would you just produce that?
Yeah that’s with these two English filmmakers, they haven’t made a feature film yet. They’ve made some really cool shorts. During COVID, they made this found footage short called “Timeout.” What I think is cool about it is it’s a creepy doll found footage movie, which is something a little bit different, which I think would be quite fun. So we’re just helping them and shepherding that into a scriptment, which is also a really interesting process. Instead of it having to be the perfect screenplay with every line of dialog exactly how it needs to be, it’s actually building an outline and a methodology for how we would make that.
And then we also have another project called “Red Ties,” which we’re collaborating with these two brother filmmakers and YouTube stars from Aruba. They have a huge following and they make these videos about these uncanny brothers. So they’re basically these killers that show up and they wear red ties. But again, it wasn’t just about, “We’ve got to work with some YouTubers.” These guys’ energy, some of the visual stuff they do just filming on their phone, I’m like, we need to help them do that in a movie theater.
Are those are set up at New Line?
No, they’re not. So with “Red Ties,” we’re actually out to the marketplace at the moment, and then we are collaborating also with Blumhouse on our found footage project, because they’ve got such a great experience in that space. I was at the Blumhouse Halloween party last October, and I just said to Jason, “Give us some money for this creepy doll found footage movie,” and he’s like, “I got you, let’s go.”
We cover a lot of the Creator space as well, and I feel like that’s where the future of filmmaking is. The traditional route that most filmmakers took is like Sundance movie, and then you get to step up. Now it feels like make interesting stuff on YouTube, then you get your movie. That must be exciting to be propping up this next generation of filmmakers.
It is. Obviously, you’re looking for a great idea, and you’re thinking, “Even if it’s made for a few million dollars, can this have an impact at the cinema?” Because we are definitely theatrically focused in what we’re doing. But I think what I look for more than anything, is I’m pretty high energy in what I do, and in partners and creators that we’re looking to work with, I’m looking for that same kind of gutsy energy. It’s very easy to communicate with people when they want to make things the same way that you want to make them. I think that’s actually one of the keys with any project that you make, is making sure that we’re all making the same movie. I think a lot of times some great movies don’t quite work out because there’s maybe slightly different agendas. If you can connect with the filmmaker’s energy, it goes a long way to getting something off the ground.
What about “The Spiral,” is that set up at a network yet?
It’s not set up yet. Blumhouse is co-studio on that with Wicked Good. So we have our pilot written, and I think everyone’s just waiting for me to be available. It’s a really exciting one for me because it’s set in Ireland in the late ‘80s, and it’s built around a lot of folklore. I’ve always wanted to make a small town show that can be a menagerie of horror, and it’s a very different show to something like “Twin Peaks,” but why I love “Twin Peaks” is that there’s many odd things going on inside this world, and that’s a really exciting one for me. It’s also got a big idea behind it. That means it’s the sort of show that could jump forward in time or also go way back in time, because it does have a kind of an underlying thematic curse that kind of fuels the entire thing. I’m hoping that’s something we’ll actually have set up relatively soon.
And now you have “The Mummy.” My main question is, where is Brendan Fraser?
Yes, we’ve actually locked him in a sarcophagus so nobody can find him.
I do love that the Blumhouse Twitter account is in on the bit. You’re acknowledging it in a fun way.
And we’ve known from the start people would be asking that. I love those movies. I just love Brendan Fraser as an actor, and I’ll be there opening weekend in 2028 to check out his new “Mummy” movie, but what we’ve done is something very different. I love a challenge, and it was me and James [Wan] talking, and James was like, “Can we make the most terrifying mummy movie that’s ever been made?” And I was like, “We can, but we’re going to have to change up what mummy movies are or might mean to people.
One of the starting points for me was when you think of a mummy, you may think of a movie that you’ve seen, or you might think of a museum that you’ve gone to. But in all of those cases, there would be a certain royalty — a king, a queen, a Pharaoh, a golden sarcophagus, jewels and riches. It would all come from that place. And I was like, “Well, what about mummification for a different purpose?” And what if your loved one or the person that lives around the corner was mummified? Why would that be? That’s what started to open up a more personal story. So I think this is definitely a much more intimate mummy movie. In a lot of ways, that’s definitely a big point of difference, and it’s one where we play around with the themes of possession as well, and interlinking those with the concept of mummification. So it’s definitely a departure, and it was kind of fun in recent days, as some people have started to see the movie, or see pieces of the movie, and certainly people that have seen the full movie and then spoken to me have gone, “Holy s–t, that’s not what I expected.” That’s the reaction that you want.
Was this ever set up at Universal?
No. Respectfully, they have their pathway. I was always super aware of that. Part of the thinking about my name being part of the title was just to really identify the film as its own thing. I’d had a great time working on “Evil Dead Rise” with New Line, and obviously have forged a deeper partnership and relationship with the execs over there and the wider Warner Bros, team, like we’re super supported by Mike DeLuca and Pam Abdy and the brilliant marketing people who worked on my movie. So it just felt like bringing Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, New Line and then myself together was a really powerful combination.
Your film has a very specific and unique tone to it, and it is very visceral and at times very gross — in a good way, for horror fans. I’m wondering how you as a director and producer navigate that tone on set, but also how you navigate buy-in on that tone from your stakeholders, your producers, the studio. Because again, this is very different from the Brendan Fraser “Mummy.”
I think ideally, with a project like this where people come to you with a notion of what about a really terrifying Mummy movie? What would you do? That’s a great question to ask a filmmaker, because if they don’t like the answer, then they shouldn’t be talking to me in the first place. I think I was spoken to about it because people thought, well, that would be exciting to see what his creative approach would be to a story like this. From a buy-in point of view, I think I had everybody hooked pretty early. From a pitch perspective, it was two or three lines. It wasn’t even really about the full weight of what the story could be yet, or what the scares would be. I don’t think anybody lived in fear that I wouldn’t bring memorable horror moments to the screen, but it was more this concept of, “Imagine the worst thing possible had happened to a family, and then that worst thing is remedied by the rediscovery of a lost loved one. But actually, there’s a worse horror waiting around the corner,” and I think that was enough for everybody to see that this could be kind of original. I was never really challenged in terms of the choices that I wanted to make, and that the type of spectacle that I wanted to create.
It all usually does come from a personal place or idea in some way, shape or form. There’s a scene involving the ripping of some skin, a very key moment in the middle of the movie. But as much as that’s this gory moment, it’s also set up by quite a beautiful moment, which is a mother and a grandmother trying to tend to their missing, respectively, daughter and granddaughter. And then something gnarly happens, but that also opens up the plot in the story as well. It has a payoff. So I think when you create moments, just throwing disgusting ideas at the screen for the sake of it, usually, for me, don’t click. But if it weaves back into your big idea, it’s a lot easier for your partners to understand why you’re doing the crazy stuff.
It feels like every few years Hollywood remembers that horror does well at the box office. But there is a specific type of horror that feels like it’s hitting in the last 10 years, which is like you, Ari Aster, very grounded, deeply unsettling. What do you think compels us to watch these horrifying films when it feels like the world is on fire?
I think it’s an outlet, for a start. I know for me, sometimes with ideas like this or questions like this, you can only really talk about it from a personal point of view. I write stories about family in danger, family under threat, the notion of family being potentially destroyed and ideally rebuilt in some way by the end of a story or surviving. And that’s because I just think family is a really important thing. People can identify with it. I’m very close knit with my family. So for me, exploring the destruction of that is kind of getting over your own fears. I think that horror always allows us to dabble in the darkness that we fear, but also for me as a storyteller, this movie has allowed me to reflect on genuinely challenging and difficult and traumatic experiences in my own life.
I had the biggest loss in my life since I made “Evil Dead,” I lost my mother, and in this movie there’s a wake sequence, and Irish people, we throw pretty good wakes when somebody dies. As celebratory as that can be, when you actually step away from that and look at it, it’s a pretty harrowing experience to bring a loved one home and put them in a box and leave the lid off, and everybody drinks whiskey and tells stories. I was like, I can’t dwell on that for the rest of my life. So you know what I’m gonna do, I’m gonna make an even worse version than you could possibly experience, and put that on screen. So from a personal point of view, horror definitely allows you to work out some of the knots that are inside your own mind, and then be expressive about threats towards really important things that exist in our world.
A strong point of view can make all the difference.
I think that’s probably the thing. This movie, more than my previous two, really allowed me to try and create as grounded an environment as I could, and then smack it around the place with crazy stuff. I intentionally wanted actors that were very naturalistic in their approach, which allows you to get inside their skin. It’s easy for a horror movie to become cartoonish very quickly, especially with the type of colors and ideas and different crazy things that I want to throw at it, but you need to believe in the people.
With Wicked Good specifically, there’s no lack of horror ideas or projects or genre ideas. What are you looking for? When you look back at Wicked Good’s library in 10 years, what do you want it to be?
I think I would like movies that have a really strong identity. If I looked back and we produced a movie a year over the next 10 years, when somebody looked at a still frame from any one of those movies, I want them to be able to know exactly what the movie was. I think it’s a real strong sense of identity, and that comes from identifying filmmakers that have that strong sense of identity. I’d also like to see that we had played around in a few different areas within the genre space. We don’t just want to make a bunch of possession movies. We don’t just want to make a bunch of body horror. We would like to be looking at intelligent sci fi. We would like to be seeing maybe a great comedy movie as well. We’d like to be eclectic within the genre space, but always to deliver things that are strong stories and that are best received in a theater.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
The post How ‘The Mummy’ Director Lee Cronin Is Paying His Horror Success Forward With Production Company Wicked Good appeared first on TheWrap.
