Tom Cruise to headline The Mummy reboot

Tom Cruise is in talks to join a reboot of The Mummy, set for release in 2017, helping to launch Universal’s new era of monster films.

Hollywood star Tom Cruise is reportedly in talks to join Universal’s reboot of The Mummy. Alex Kurtzman is directing the movie, which is set to launch Universal’s new monster universe, said The Hollywood Reporter.

Tom Cruise attending the Shanghai premiere of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation.(AFP)

Sources say Universal has been looking for a big star to anchor the film, and is hoping Cruise will fill that role. Universal has not commented yet. The film will be set in present day and is set for release on March 24, 2017.

Jon Spaihts has written the script although plot details are being kept deep in the tomb. Kurtzman, Chris Morgan and Sean Daniel are producing. Universal’s The Mummy is the first of many films that will renew Universal’s legacy of monsters. Other potential films revolve around the characters of Dracula, Frankenstein, the Invisible Man, the Bride of Frankenstein, and vampire hunter Van Helsing.

The first three installments of The Mummy starred Brendan Fraser.

Characters from other monster films will crop up in each installment, and the series will culminate in a final tie-in movie. The previous three installments starred Brendan Fraser, and followed navy Seal Tyler Colt on his mission in the Iraqi desert in search of a group of terrorists.

Cruise, 53, was most recently seen in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. The reboot will begin shooting mid-February. Cruise will then head back to the Mission: Impossible franchise for the sixth installment, which will shoot later in 2016.

His other upcoming films include Jack Reacher: Never Go Back and Mena.