TQS StaffAlthough it’s been twelve years since the release of the first Tomb Raider movie starring Angelina Jolie, and seventeen years from the beginning of the franchise, Lara Croft is still one of the most famous video game and movie heroines of our time. While the Jolie films were lacking – especially the mouthful that is Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life – it looks as though we will be given another chance to follow the exploits of everyone’s favourite female archaeologist.
GK Films secured the rights to a Tomb Raider reboot in 2011, but have been waiting for a few things to come into place; most importantly, the reboot of the video game series which happened early in 2013. It saw a change in publishers from Eidos to Square Enix and reshaped the story of Lara Croft.
After two years of finding a crew to work on the new film, the position of writer was filled by Marti Noxon, who is best known for writing and executive producing several episodes of the classic TV series Buffy, The Vampire Slayer. While previous incarnations have failed to appeal to many women, the new Lara will be written by a woman and will be an aspirational figure for young women.
In an attempt to distance itself from the Angelina Jolie series of films, the new series will be taking inspiration from films like 127 Hours which emphasise the power of human endurance. The new film is rumoured to largely follow the same origin story as the recent Tomb Raider game as Lara is stranded on an island and has to learn to fight to survive and begin to accept the necessity of taking a human life. The film crew are working closely with the Crystal Dynamics team to create a fully integrated experience, but until then fans of the franchise entertained can play the 2013 game, tomb raider slots based on the same mythology and the Gail Simone comic books which will arc between the two video games and show Lara’s growth.
In the last ten years we’ve seen a renewed interest in some of the most enduring franchises, such as Batman and James Bond. Both these men received reboots which were darker and grittier, more fitting for our modern age, and it seems as though this was the plan for Lara. The game released in March of 2013 redefined Lara’s origins and portrayed her in a much more vulnerable way than ever before, as voiced by the incomparable Camilla Luddington, but it’s anyone’s guess right now who will be the new face of the Tomb Raider herself.
