TMZ’s Claude Brodesser has written a funny short piece about Rob Cohen‘s return to the fold with the third bullshit Mummy movie, which even Stephen Sommers — one of the all-time demonic bad guys of soulless modern-day Hollywood — has apparently declined to do.

Director Rob Cohen at XXX premiere after-party in ’02

“Is director Rob Cohen about to get sprung from movie jail?” Brodesser begins. “Our spies tell us that Cohen, the director of Vin Diesel action hits like The Fast and the Furious and XXX is in negotiations to direct the third incarnation of The Mummy franchise at Universal Pictures.
“A director with those two mega-credits under his belt normally wouldn’t be available to do yeoman’s service on the third iteration of a Brendan Fraser franchise, but Cohen took the blame for the bloated, plotless special-effects stinker that was Stealth — a $100 million bomb that that fell out of Sony Pictures’ skies back in 2005.
“After a mess like that, you’re in ‘movie jail’ — the equivalent of purgatory for directors. Performing well on an established franchise would go a long way toward rehabbing your rep, and clearly, insiders say, Cohen’s hip to this fact. Look for Universal to make the formal offer to Cohen sometime later this week.”
I remember what a great job Cohen did on The Fast and the Furious — and what a beautiful ending it had. I’m sorry he’s stuck doing a Mummy movie, but maybe he can make it work on some level and then get back and do something better the next time out.