Maria Bello (A History of Violence) will replace Rachel Weisz in The Mummy 3, reports Variety.
She joins Brendan Fraser, Luke Ford, Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh in the Rob Cohen-directed film for Universal Pictures.
Bello will play Evelyn Carnahan O’Connell, the adventuress played in the first two films by Weisz. After Weisz declined to reprise, Cohen and the studio cast a wide net for a replacement.
Written by “Smallville” creators Miles Millar and Alfred Gough, the film brings the O’Connells and their full-grown son (Ford) to the forbidden tombs of China and the Himalayas, where they battle a shape-shifting mummy, a former Chinese emperor (Li) cursed by a wizard (Yeoh).
Sean Daniel, Jim Jacks, Stephen Sommers and Bob Ducsay are producing.
