Universal Pictures has signed and exclusive two-year production deal with film creators Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. The duo is the brain trust behind a lot of big-budget genre films like J.J. Abrams’ ‘Star Trek’ and the upcoming adaptation of ‘Ender’s Game’. They’ve also created several sci-fi television series like ‘Alias’ and ‘Fringe’.

So what are Kurtzman and Orci, under their K/O Paper Products banner doing for Universal? According to Deadline, the first projects on the Kurtzman/Orci agenda is to reboot one of Universal’s classic movie monsters and one… well… not so classic monster-fighter.

First up is a reboot of ‘The Mummy’. The press release from Universal doesn’t specify whether this is a reboot of the classic Boris Karloff ‘Mummy’ or the 1999 Brendan Fraser vehicle. My hope is that it’s a reboot of the original, similar to what Universal did with ‘The Wolfman’ in 2010.

Also slated is a return to the universe of ‘Van Helsing’, last played in 2004 by Hugh Jackman (‘X-Men’). According to the release, Tom Cruise is attached to this reboot, with plans to both produce and star. Since it’s an entirely different actor in the lead, I suspect it’ll either be a complete reboot or possibly Cruise can play another member of the Van Helsing bloodline. Either way, it’ll be interesting to see what becomes of this one… especially since many fans didn’t care for the previous outing.

What do you think about the Mummy and Van Helsing returning to theaters? Comment below and let me know.

To read the full press release from Univeral, head on over to Deadline.