Behold, for your viewing pleasure: a photo of Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe looking at one another.

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Universal Pictures
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And yet this is no ordinary photo of decorated actors Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe establishing eye contact. The image above, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly, comes from Universal’s blockbuster-in-the-making The Mummy, and Crowe’s character will be familiar to many readers. Cruise portrays the original creation Nick Morton, an “amoral tough guy” who disturbs the sleep of the Egyptian undead. But Crowe, as his handsome tie and well-coiffed hair both suggest, has a more literary pedigree in his background.

Crowe has signed on to portray Dr. Henry Jekyll, a face we won’t see the last of in The Mummy, due June 9. Dr. Jekyll comes bundled with the violent, unstable, chemically-induced alter ego of Mr. Hyde, and with The Mummy plotted as the first in a long line of interconnected movies from Universal centered on their various monster properties, audiences can expect to get a glimpse of Crowe’s wild side sooner or later.

EW also has some telling quotes from director Alex Kurtzman, who spoke at length about his intentions to push Tom Cruise to play against his hyper-competent type:

There’s an origin story happening on two different fronts... I won’t tell you too much more than that, other than to say: One of the things that I think has defined Tom Cruise movies, for 30 years, is that Tom Cruise always saves the day. You know whenever you’re in a Tom Cruise movie that he’s gonna figure out a way to save the day. And that’s great, and it’s why I pay my money to see his movies. However, in the context of a monster movie, it’s challenging, because monster movies are about characters who are often very out of control, and don’t know how to save the day. The first thing I said to Tom was, ‘It’ll be scarier if we can take away the fundamental knowledge that you’re gonna solve the problem.’

The first trailer debuted earlier this month, give it a look below:

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