Two years ago, just after Lara Croft: Underworld sold over 2 million copies,
Warner Bros flirted with picking up the film rights to
Tomb Raider with the intent of rebooting the ass-kicking, female Indiana Jones style adventurer for the screen. They balked at the last minute and creators Eidos Interactive have had no other studio come crawling at their door since. Was Tomb Raider, a turn of the century pop-culture icon and who hasn't had a game released in her name in nearly two and a half years... now dated... the novelty of the sex symbol having worn off? GK Films certainly hope not.
Deadline reports that The Departed producer
Graham King sees an opportunity for a revival and has picked up the screen-rights to Tomb Raider, boldly announcing a Lara Croft reboot to land in cinema's 2013 that "will create daring new adventures for the young and dynamic Lara Croft. Despite GK's relationship with
Angelina Jolie having financed The Tourist for her, clearly by the wording above she won't be busting out of the costume as before (she gave up on this series a long time ago) and the tough search will be on to find a beautiful heroine who in a tight t-shirt, those unfashionable glasses, the tight shorts & t-shirt combo and those pistols doesn't look daft. Or failing that, whomever's breasts look most appealing I guess. Tomb Raider was both a mediocre video game and two extremely ordinary summer blockbusters... but it's the concept that drew so much popularity among men who were frighteningly turned on by a video game character (and then her impossibly beautiful real life counterpart) and it was pleasurable for women, who don't get that many tentpoles led by their sex. Both films combined grossed $423 million worldwide for Paramount. No director, writer have been announced as the deal is still fresh but already attention has turned to who could lead a new Tomb Raider movie. Two years ago, in an article aptly titled "
TOMB RAIDER reboot... OWF know who they want to lead" we suggested Brit actress and former Lara Croft model
Rhona Mitra...
34 year old Mitra was in her early 20s when then studio Paramount were casting a Lara Croft film a decade ago and having even got her breasts enhanced for her video game counterpart and taking classes in gaining confidence so during interviews she would have the presence that Lara showed off in the video games, she was ultimately deemed to be a risky unknown with a lightweight CV. Mitra, probably still an unknown to many, has two leading action roles on her CV now in Doomsday and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, and I know she has the jobs to pull this off, but GK will want a bigger name... unfortunately. And someone 10 years younger than she. Expect the likes of
Megan Fox, Olivia Wilde and even Black Widow herself,
Scarlett Johansson to be linked to the part over the coming months.