Hollywood A-listers Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe appear on the big screen for the first time ever in new summer blockbuster The Mummy and director Alex Kurtzman says he just had to have these alpha males face off in the movie.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, Kurtzman said: "They had to have a fight! How could you not with those two? It was amazing. They've been wanting to work together for 20 years and they're good friends and the right movie just never came along and then ours did."
The big-budget remake is the first of a projected Dark Universe franchise from Universal, with Tom Cruise as artefact hunter Nick Morton and Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll.
Kurtzman says that with such A list talent on screen, sparks inevitably had to fly.
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"The most amazing thing for me watching the fight was they are both incredible actors and both have done their fair share of fight scenes in movies separately but to watch them come together was great," he said.
"And when you do a fight scene like that, you have to throw a real punch, you have to be so experienced that you have to know exactly how to miss and their technical ability to choreograph that while also protecting each other was pretty amazing to watch."
Despite the starry cast-list, the lead role is played by Algerian actress Sofia Boutella who plays Ahmanet, an ancient Egyptian princess who is mistakenly awoken from the dead and tries to reclaim dominion over mankind.
She praised Kurtzman for making the blockbuster a very female-led movie, with Annabelle Wallis of Peaky Blinders fame also sharing screen-time with Cruise.
"Alex Kurtzman, the director, was so intelligent in doing that," Boutella told RTÉ Entertainment.
"I think it's empowering for a woman and more roles are needed out there for woman and I love the fact that my character and Annabelle's character are opinionated, strong females..".
The Mummy is in cinemas from Friday, June 9.
