Russell Crowe will play Dr. Jekyll in Tom Cruise's remake of The Mummy

Russell Crowe has confirmed that he'll join Tom Cruise in Universal's remake of The Mummy after rumors about his involvement appeared online last week.

Crowe told Collider in a recent interview that he thought director Alex Kurtzman (the writer on Star Trek Into Darkness) had an interesting take on the story, and it was his vision for the film that led to the actor signing on. Crowe also joked that he's been friends with Cruise for decades, but following the actor's split from Nicole Kidman, they lost touch.

The actor added that Kurtzman, a longtime friend of and collaborator with J.J. Abrams, was the type of director that understood how to carry a story from the original concept to the pages of a script and into the camera. Crowe said that after their first meeting, he knew they'd not only get along swimmingly, but would also be great co-workers as they had the same concerns and hopes for the remake.

"How they've pulled all of this stuff forward into a contemporary world and how they're building it out from there, and how all of the different character interweave into each other's stories, it's fantastic," Crowe said.

Cruise signed onto the project last year, but not much else is known about the movie, which marks the first entry in Universal's new monster cinematic universe. The film was originally supposed to be released March 24, 2017 but was pushed back to June 9.