Mummy 3 & beyond

Variety reports that Universal Pictures and director Rob Cohen have set Luke Ford to star in the third installment of THE MUMMY, in a move that potentially sets the franchise up for future films. The 26-year-old Australian actor was cast with the expectation that he will eventually carry the franchise. Ford will play Alex O'Connell, the grown-up son of Brendan Fraser's Rick O'Connell and Rachel Weisz's Evelyn Carnahan O'Connell from the first two Mummy films. (Freddie Boath played the character as a boy in The Mummy Returns.) Alex journeys into the forbidden tombs of China and into the Himalayas, where he and Fraser's character run into a new shape- shifting mummy, a former Chinese emperor who was cursed by a female wizard. (Weisz declined to return for the third Mummy.) Jet Li plays the mummy. Michelle Yeoh plays the wizard. The script was written by Smallville creators Miles Millar and Alfred Gough. Shooting will begin in Montreal on July 27 and then move to China. The film is eyeing a July 2008 release date.