Brendan Fraser will be back in third installment of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, but lovely Rachel Weisz has not signed on. No matter because Jet Li (The One) and Michelle Yeoh (Memoirs of a Geisha) will be in this one. Also in the cast are Maria Bello, John Hannah, Luke Ford and others. This one has a shape-shifting Oriental mummy of an Emperor, cursed by a wizard.

The Mummy movies have always been entertaining and action-packed, and Fraser’s brash Rick O’Connell character kind of reminds me of Indiana Jones.

The director for this Mummy is Rob Cohen, who has been producing since 1975: Mahogany, Thank God It’s Friday, The Wiz, The Legend of Billie Jean, The Witches of Eastwick, The Serpent and the Rainbow, Bird on a Wire and more. He also directed Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Dragonheart, The Skulls, The Fast and the Furious, Stealth and others.

The movie opens Aug 1st, 2008. Probably a smart idea to open so late in the year, with Indiana Jones 4: The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull opening May 22nd.