A major hurdle has been successfully cleared in getting the third Mummy film underway, with Brendan Fraser having just signed to reprise his role as Rick O'Connell. Director Rob Cohen though has also suffered a minor setback, with Mrs O'Connell, aka the lovely Rachel Weisz, having passed on the opportunity for a third archaeological outing.
It's a major step forward for the sequel, which already has Jet Li aboard as its major villain. If you hadn't guessed (or read our story some weeks back), this time the adventure takes place in China, and involves an ancient Emperor and all of his warriors, who are currently made of terracotta but presumably turn into something a bit tougher when they invariably shall come to life.
Oddly for such a big budget project in such an advanced state of development, Universal haven't technically greenlit the film yet, but no-one seems to perturbed by this fact, pressing on as normal and gearing towards a summer 2008 release date. It's all expected to be signed and sealed after screenwriters Miles Millar and Alfred Gough (of Smallville fame) give the script another rewrite to account for the loss of Weisz's character.
Fraser's return to the genre means you'll see him in two big adventure filmswithin a couple of months - Mummy 3 is sterring towards July, while March 2008 is the current target for Inkheart.