For Hollywood, a universe is the core of a franchise, and creating franchises is considered the best way, or maybe the only way, to keep vast numbers of multiplex seats reliably filled. So we have DC Comics universes competing with Marvel Comics universes, and now the Dark Universe, a far-reaching Universal Pictures venture that will recycle such classic treasures as "The Bride of Frankenstein" and "The Invisible Man" into big-budget, new fashioned oldies. In an industry cursed by a paucity of ideas, "The Mummy" points to the future by exhuming the past.
KCRW
