The report also claims that Tom Cruise “approved” of director Alex Kurtzman, with this report claiming that the director was merely “in the running” for this project until Tom Cruise gave the final seal of approval.
However, we reported in late July 2014 that Alex Kurtzman was in final talks to direct The Mummy, while we didn’t hear about Tom Cruise’s potential involvement until November 2015.
Variety reports that Tom Cruise had almost complete creative control over every aspect of the movie, in his role as a producer.
While he has written big-budget tentpoles like Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible III, Transformers, Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness and The Amazing Spider-Man 2, as a director, Alex Kurtzman reportedly “struggled to adjust to scope of the project,” with many sources from the production claiming that Tom Cruise felt like “the real director,” overseeing several of The Mummy action scenes and often “micro-managing” the production.