The ‘Tomb Raider’ video game franchise has been a staple of the Sony Playstation since the system’s debut. Since the first game was released in 1996, the adventures of English archaeologist Lara Croft have spawned several games, comic books, and even theme park rides. There was also a pair of movies starring Angelina Jolie released in the early 2000s, but both of those films received less than favorable reviews. Now, since a new game was released recently by Square Enix that acts like a reboot of the series featuring a much younger Lara, it looks as if the film franchise will be getting a reboot as well.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, MGM will be partnering with GK Films, who acquired the film rights to the character back in 2011, to develop an all-new version of Lara Croft for the big screen. Casting and plot details have yet to be announced, but since the new game offers up an origin story and the first big adventure for the 21-year-old adventurer, the film is likely to draw some elements from the rebooted game series.
In an interview with Variety, Darrell Gallagher, the head of game developer Crystal Dynamics, mentioned that when they were looking to relaunch the ‘Tomb Raider’ series with a fresh start, they looked to two other iconic pop culture figures that have been reinvented in recent years for a new generation of fans:
“We started to look at other franchises outside of gaming. Bond and Batman are two great examples, with Bond being around for 50 years. We looked at the bold choices they made to make sure the franchise is relevant for a current audience rather than sticking to a formula that is dated.”
The new game seems to be pretty popular amongst fans, but as details such as story and cast emerge from the film side of things, we’ll see how receptive they are to the upcoming film. But given what we know about it now, what do you think about a new ‘Tomb Raider’ movie? Do you think that it will find more success than the Angelina Jolie version? Let us know what you think in the comments section.
