{"id":399198,"date":"2026-04-15T05:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T05:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/399198\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T05:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T05:38:11","slug":"were-an-island-of-storytellers-lee-cronin-director-of-the-mummy-loves-making-movies-in-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/399198\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We\u2019re an island of storytellers\u2019: Lee Cronin, director of \u2018The Mummy\u2019 loves making movies in Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

The writer-director is renowned for his horror films, including The Hole in the Ground and Evil Dead Rise.<\/p>\n

His latest film, The Mummy, is a reimagining of the classic Mummy franchise, which includes the 1932 original starring horror icon Boris Karloff.<\/p>\n

\"Natalie<\/p>\n

Natalie Grace stars in Lee Cronin\u2019s The Mummy (Warner Bros\/PA)<\/p>\n

The film stars Jack Reynor (Midsommar) and Laia Costa (The Wheel of Time) as Charlie and Larissa Cannon, whose daughter Katie goes missing in the Egyptian desert.<\/p>\n

Eight years later, the broken family is shocked when she is returned to them and what should be a joyful reunion quickly turns into a living nightmare.<\/p>\n

The film was filmed in Ireland and Spain and is inspired by Egyptian lore.<\/p>\n

People were buried not expecting to be disturbed, not to be woken up<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been attracted to the idea of buried secrets,\u201d Cronin (44) said. \u201cAnd that, to me, is kind of what a mummy is.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we ignore movies for a moment and think about real history, people were buried not expecting to be disturbed, not to be woken up, but to be taken from their graves.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s really interesting. If you go digging around with the dead, what might you find? That idea drew me in more than any attraction to previous Mummy films.<\/p>\n

\"Lee<\/p>\n

Lee Cronin, director and writer of ‘The Mummy’. Photo: PA<\/p>\n

\u201cThis movie looks at mummification for a different purpose. Typically, we think of kings, queens, or pharaohs in Mummy stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut here, it\u2019s about something closer to home, what happens if someone very close to you is mummified, and why?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mummy is one of a number of horror films recently made in Ireland.<\/p>\n

Hokum by Damien McCarthy, starring Adam Scott, is also set to be released next month.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, generationally, we\u2019re now seeing Irish filmmakers emerge who were heavily influenced by genre movies when we were younger,\u201d Cronin said.<\/p>\n

We have an incredible wealth of talent, not just behind the camera<\/p>\n

\u201cThat influence is starting to filter through and really pay off, which is brilliant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an incredible wealth of talent, not just behind the camera, but in front of it as well, as we\u2019ve seen with so many amazing casts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re truly an island of storytellers and now we\u2019re performing on the international stage all the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s horror or any other genre, that\u2019s incredibly exciting to see and to be part of.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jack<\/p>\n

Jack Reynor stars in Lee Cronin\u2019s The Mummy (Warner Bros\/PA)<\/p>\n

Reynor (34), who has also starred in Sing Street and Power Ballad, said it was a lovely experience to shoot the film in Ardmore Studios in Wicklow.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, having the opportunity to shoot this film in Ireland, within our own film industry, and to take on something so ambitious and broad in scope was really special,\u201d the Irish actor said.<\/p>\n

Lee Cronin\u2019s The Mummy is in UK and Irish cinemas on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The writer-director is renowned for his horror films, including The Hole in the Ground and Evil Dead Rise.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,101141,2846],"class_list":["post-399198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-press-association-pa","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}