Producer Graham King has been planning a new movie version of Tomb Raider for a few years, and I was watching pretty closely. As development went on, very few details were leaked but I did manage to pick up some scraps. For example, they were looking for a much younger Lara Croft than Angelina Jolie's version, with the story set to be something of a "first mission" affair. It seemed to have some similarities Rhianna Pratchett's story for the 2013 game but was certainly not a direct adaptation. But just as the pieces were starting to come together and that movie's outline take shape before my eyes, the reset button has been hit. As reported by Deadline, Warner Bros. have now come on board to back and distribute the film, and Evan Daugherty has been brought on to write a new screenplay. So all bets are off, as to what will remain from the previous screenplays and what will stay. As far as I know, every detail I scrounged up in the last couple of years might now be utterly irrelevant. Rats. Daugherty, for those who don't have his IMDB page bookmarked, was a writer on Snow White and The Huntsman, Divergent, The Killing Season and the recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Among his upcoming work is the third GI Joe film which, according to previous reports, will bring in the Crimson Twins and Matt Trakker of MASK. He's obviously quite square with 80s and 90s pop culture, and I bet we'll one day hear all about the many hours he spent playing the original Tomb Raider and why that makes the film authentic and fan-friendly. There's yet to be a release date for the new Tomb Raider announced. Let's see if it beats Uncharted to the screen.
Brendon Connelly has been a film writer since the early 90s, with time on the staff of Orbit Magazine, Slashfilm, Bleeding Cool, Den of Geek and many more. He's a long time teacher of film studies and practical filmmaking classes, and has directed music videos, commercials, short films and more. His favourite film is Terry Gilliam's Brazil, his favourite food is pancakes or crepes, and he tries to live his life by the teachings of Kermit the Frog.
