The Tomb Raider franchise has had a resurgence thanks to a series of successful reboot video games, and now the movie franchise is looking for an equal opportunity for success, with an upcoming film reboot starring Ex Machina‘s Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft.
We’ve know that the Tomb Raider movie reboot would be sticking close to the reboot games’ storyline and grittier tone, and would also be an origin story for Lara Croft’s survivalist adventuring. Now producer Graham King is confirming a few more details of Tomb Raider‘s story, which will set the film down a different path than that of the games.
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King told Hey U Guys that “this is kind of what we call a ‘back to the roots story.” this is a young Lara Croft in search to see if her father is dead or alive, so it has very emotional part to it and I think that’s what Alicia found so interesting about it.”
Lord Richard Croft was a peripheral character in the Tomb Raider video games, but the second Angelina Jolie movie adaptation, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider made a meta moment out of having Jolie’s real-life dad Jon Voight play Lord Richard in the film. However, this movie reboot would be covering new ground by having her begin her survivalist expeditions by searching for her dad.
It makes sense from a dramatic and narrative standpoint. Defining Lara’s bravery and strength as not just a selfish will to survive but a selfless will to survive and save a loved one gives the audience something to root for, and Vikander something work with from a performance standpoint.
After all the daddy-saving-daughter action of the Taken franchise, it will be interesting to see the dynamic reversed.
Tomb Raider will be released on March 16 2018.
