TOMB RAIDER movie reboot lands director and writer

The last few days I’ve had friends constantly boasting about how absolutely amazing “Rise of the Tomb Raider” is. This latest chapter, along with 2013’s simply titled “Tomb Raider”, has been one hell of a successful reboot for the long-running acclaimed action adventure video game franchise. Of course things haven’t been looking anywhere near as good for a planned reboot of the video game’s feature film adaptation though. Though announced way back in 2010 already, there had been little to no movement on a new cinematic take on the adventures of Lara Croft – previously played on-screen by Angelina Jolie in two lightweight, moderately entertaining flicks back in 2001 and 2003 respectively. This new reboot had seemingly got stuck in one of those underground tombs that the young action heroine archaeologist could usually find her way out of with ease.

But now something is finally happening as THR reports that Roar Uthaug, the director behind the upcoming Norwegian disaster drama The Wave and very well received 2006 slasher Cold Prey, has been tapped by MGM and Warner Bros. to helm a new Tomb Raider movie reboot. The studios have also turned to Geneva Robertson-Dworet, a screenwriter responsible for Black List entry Hibernation and who is also a co-writer on Transformers 5, to pen the screenplay.

Robertson-Dworet will be the fifth screenwriter to actually take a crack at revising Tomb Raider, with Evan Daugherty, Marti Noxon and Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby all having previously taken a stab at it to no real avail. While the story specifics of Robertson-Dworet’s attempt is still being kept tightly under wraps, it is believed that the film will detail young Lara Croft’s first adventure.

That’s the exact same approach that was taken by the recent video game reboot, showing how a teenage Lara Croft embarks on her first expedition but gets shipwrecked on a fictional island off the coast of Asia, ruled by a mystical cult. In trying to survive the island and save her friends from the cult, we gradually see how Lara goes from normal young girl to the gun-toting badass explorer we would one day get to know, all the while caught up in this big mystical mystery.

It’s the type of story that would actually make for a good movie in the right hands. And hell, if the producers wanted they could even take borrowing for it’s video game counterpart even further by casting Grey’s Anatomy actress Camilla Luddington in the role as young Lara. She of course actually provides the motion-capture and voice of Lara in the recent video games, and has been a hit with the fans. There is the small problem with her not really looking like Lara in the face department and at 31, she’s way older than the character should be at this stage in her life.

At least when they cast Jolie back in the day, she was about as perfect a match physically and personality-wise for the then-current video game iteration of the character – even if her movies never quite lived up to her potential. I would expect that the studios will probably want to do the same this time around, which leaves me completely stumped as to which young actresses could perhaps take on the role? Any suggestions from your side?

 

Last Updated: November 19, 2015