Tomb Raider

Plot: Aristocratic adventurer and archeologist Lara Croft embarks on a quest to find an artifact that could be the key to survival of the universe. The movie is based on the ultra-popular series of video games.

News:

12 January, 2001

Empire Online got a lovely little collection of pictures from the Pinewood Studios sets in London. Shooting is scheduled to continue there for another two weeks. One of the sets is to represent the temple at Angkor Wat, which was a location shot last year. The other set features a giant mechanical version of the solar system which is the site of a big fight. You can find the pics and the article here.

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9 January, 2001

Angelina Jolie talked to British tabloid The Sun about her role as the video game heroine. They of course wanted to know what was done to recreate Lara Croft's rather definitive shape. "We decided she was human now and she wasn’t perfect. I gained weight and worked out and my shape changed. She’s a woman and she’s curvy and cheeky and playful and wicked. We didn’t try to make her macho."

Stuntman Simon Crane, who worked with Jolie, had high praise for her. "I would rate Angelina very highly against all of the action actors I have worked with. She has done sequences that involve stunts you won’t have seen a woman do before. She does all these stunts herself. I was very impressed."

14 December, 2000

Today is all about pictures of Angelina Jolie in that tight outfit. Newsworthy? Probably not but you guys out there probably aren't complaining, now are you? These shots come courtesy of Set Online. The first features Lara Croft standing over the dead hulk of a robot, presumably the one from the trailer. The second shot is just to look pretty.

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12 December, 2000

The teaser trailer is now available for download from the official site.

Click on any of the pictures below for a larger still from the trailer or click one of the links below to download the entire trailer.

• 4MB MOV Lo-Res
• 10MB MOV Med-Res
• 23MB MOV Hi-Res

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7 December, 2000

Ladies and gentlemen, I present Lara Croft. To your left is very likely the first official photo of Angelina Jolie in her Croft getup. It's basically the same outfit seen in those unofficial shots earlier. The photo is set to appear in the next issue of Entertainment Weekly.

The part is making Angelina Jolie a bit nervous. "There are so many people who love this game,'' she said. "She's their girl, and you don't want to take away the thing they love about her. You hope you do justice to what everyone wanted. You pray you got it right."

In a phone interview with the AP, Jolie talked about the role. "We decided she was human now and she wasn't perfect. I gained weight and worked out and my shape changed," she said. "She's a woman and she's curvy and cheeky and playful and wicked and we didn't try to make her macho."

The part was the most physical of her career, requiring her to learn boxing, kickboxing, yoga, bungee ballet, dogsledding, gymnastics and weapons training. "It's like joining the army," she said. "I almost recommend to everyone sending themselves off to some insane boot camp and traveling the world and taking themselves out of their normal life and getting free."

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2 November, 2000

Even more goodies are popping up on the official site. A brand new image of a production design for the interior of Croft Manor has been added. Also, Paramount announced that Tomb Raider Live on November 9th. It will feature a live broadcast from the Pinewood Studios in London. Included will be an interview with director Simon West, a look behind the scenes and a chat with members of the crew. The broadcast begins at 2:30 PM EST and will be shown again later at 10 PM EST. The broadcast will be using the Real Player so make sure you have it installed before heading over.

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31 October, 2000

The official website for this movie has opened, far in advance of that actual movie's release. More surprising, there is actually quite a bit of information there. It includes cast photos, an interview with director Simon West, wallpapers and a picture of the week.

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3 October, 2000

According to IMDB, the movie features some close-up nude scenes that have Angelina Jolie more than a little anxious. Unlike her 3D rendered video game counterpart, Jolie might not be perfectly formed. An extra from the movie says, "Cellulite has been mentioned. I don't think she is very keen to discuss it, though." Enter Lisa Bangert, the former Page 3 girl who will be bringing up the rear so to speak. I wonder if she will actually list butt-double on her resume or not.

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29 September, 2000

We've got another look at Jolie in costume for you. This one is considerably clearer. There is also a shot of something on the set. It looks like some sort of temple.

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28 September, 2000

Angelina Jolie's real life father, Jon Voight, will be portraying her father on the big screen too. Voight has signed on the picture to play Lord Croft. He joined the project this week for one week of filming.

22 September, 2000

Hot on the heels of the first picture of Angelina Jolie on set comes the first picture of the set. It's not really finished yet but you can tell it will be pretty fancy once it is finished. Presumably this will be something that Lara Croft is exploring.

18 September, 2000

The first picture has appeared of Angelina Jolie in costume on set. The photo appeared in The Sunday Mirror. Basically it tells us that her costume will be fairly similar to the one in the video game, minus a bit of color. And yes, Jolie appears capable of filling Lara Croft's... um... shoes.

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1 September, 2000

Here's a switch. We can report that BBC TV star Richard Blackwood will not be appearing in the movie. Why? Apparently he wants to but can't fit it into his schedule."I've had two movie offers," Blackwood says in an interview with Popcorn, "I had The Mummy 2 and I had Tomb Raider. It was really weird, because I always wanted to do movies - and I still do - but it's my music [career] that's stopping me."

He would have been playing Lara Croft's assistant, a fairly large part in the film. "I would've had a big part - [the character] is a mad scientist - and you could just make it really funny. I was thinking, 'That's the one', and I couldn't do it because of my music commitments."

According to Coming Attractions, Chris Barrie however will be appearing in the movie. Best known for his role on the TV series Red Dwarf, Barrie will be playing Hillary, Croft's butler. This was probably the role offered to Blackwood.

According to IMDB, Ford's British subsidiary maker of exotic cars, Aston Martin, will be making a car just for the movie. Built mostly from aluminum and carbon fibre, the V12 Vanquish, will hitting showrooms next year around the time the movie premieres. Expect to drop at least $250,000 to get one of your own.

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24 August, 2000

Daniel Craig talked to Popcorn about his plans regarding Hollywood movies like this one. , "I've not really got any ambitions towards Hollywood because I think we make quite good movies in [the United Kingdom, but] it's silly not to go and do their films, because they make them on such a big scale and I've not done that before."

On director Simon West's movie The Rock Craig says, "I think it's very funny. It takes the p*** out of itself a bit. If [West] can bring that to Tomb Raider, that would be a nice way for it to be a hit. Ultimately, I think it's going to be a film where you don't have to ask too many questions. A proper popcorn movie."

The article also states that should they be made, Craig is signed on for a pair of sequels.

1 August, 2000

Paramount Pictures put out a press release today to say that principal photography has begun at Pinewood Studios in London. "Lara Croft is the greatest female action adventure heroine of our time, perhaps of all time," says director Simon West. "This is a unique opportunity to develop her personality and bring her to a wider audience. The prospect of bringing Lara to life while putting a fresh spin on this genre is very exciting."

It mentions some of the casting as well. Iain Glen (Gorillas in the Mist) will play Lara Croft's "arch villain Powell, adversary of Lara Croft's father, Lord Croft, and now Lara's sworn enemy." Daniel Craig (I Dreamed of Africa) is "Lara Croft's occasional accomplice." Leslie Phillips will be playing "Wilson, a former admirer of Lord Croft who has now turned against him and joined forces with Powell." Expect more casting announcements shortly.

The movie should be released in the Summer of 2001. Other locations will include Cambodia and Iceland.

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28 July, 2000

Simon West talked to Variety about the movie. He reveals that when first approached about the project he turned it down. However after thinking about it he thought about it as something like "coming across James Bond in 1961".

West has never played the video game. Despite that he has a definite vision for the movie saying he was making it like "James Bond on acid, James Bond as it should be, slightly sadistic, supercool, with a surreal element".

Remember talk of all the different scripts written for this? Forget them. West ditched the original script after reading it. "The original script had scenes with people visiting the Queen and drinking tea. It was a tragedy waiting to happen. I did this as a public service!"

19 July, 2000

Daniel Craig (I Dreamed of Africa) has joined the cast. He will be playing the male lead in the movie, CIA agent Theo Rooker. It was also announced that Mutual Film Co. has stepped up to co-produce and co-finance the project with Paramount. In return Mutual gets German and Japanese distribution rights.

Is it possible that Paramount is trying to go cheap on this project? That's what a report on Dark Horizons is saying. This might explain the desire to bring in another studio on the project.

"I work at The Mill in London (the people who are doing the SFX) working on Tomb Raider. Though over the last week the suits at Paramount have been slashing the SFX budget to the point that there are hardly any effects. We have designed loads of creatures and effects for sequences. Most have been scrapped. The studio feels that the sequences are expensive and can reduce the budget. This has caused major script changes and scaled down action sequences. There's also been arguments between the films production staff, which has caused a number of people to leave production."

18 July, 2000

Talking to MSNBC, Angelina Jolie let loose one of her reason's for taking the part. She says her former husband, Jonny Lee Miller was obsessed with playing the game. "Jonny used to play Tomb Raider all the time, and I used to compete with this woman. Taking on this part is a woman's revenge, isn't it?"

26 June, 2000

Being a star isn't all it's cracked up to be sometimes. Angelina Jolie actually has a curfew while working on Tomb Raider. Apparently Jolie's reputation for being on the wild side made her bosses a bit nervous so she is under orders to be in bed by 11PM every night. UK Showbiz columnist Baz Bamigboye was told "if she wants to become the kind of star who can open a movie on her own, then she has to be disciplined...It's probably in her contract, about taking care of herself."

The movie is now filming at Pinewood Studios in London.

13 June, 2000

How would you like a part in the movie? If you're serious then you need to contact Casting Collective. They are busy looking for extras to appear as international diplomats in the movie. Anyone can apply but they are specifically looking for Japanese businessmen. If you're interested, contact them at:

The Casting Collective
5&6 Olympic House
317-321 Latimer Road
London W10 6RA
Fax: 020-8962-0333
email: enquiries@castingcollective.co.uk

8 June, 2000

IGN Movies managed to sit down with Angelina Jolie and talk to her about her upcoming role as Lara Croft. Apparently she is being trained hard for the role. "I've been in England for three weeks, and we're there over a month more -- just doing training. I'll train through the whole film. It's been great for me at this time in my life. I get up and do yoga at 7:30 [a.m.], which is insane. And I'm on protein shakes. They've taken my cigarettes and alcohol and sugar away from me."

When asked what type of training she is doing, Jolie responds "Bungee ballet, diving, weapons training with Special Forces, kickboxing. Everything from soccer to rowing, to things that are British. They're going to send me to manners school [laughs]." She went on to say that she will playing Croft as very British. "She's very British. But she was raised a certain way, she was raised really proper. She has a very proper voice, but it's been broken down, and she has very proper manners, but they've been broken down. "

You can read the entire interview here.

25 May, 2000

Angelina Jolie is going to be throwing herself into the role of Lara Croft one hundred percent. "I'm going to do everything. She is capable of everything so I am going to take everything from archery to climbing, to gunplay, to street fighting... I always play women I would date. It'll be like Indiana Jones and a bit of James Bond"

4 May, 2000

A considerable amount of the movie's special effects will be handled by the Mill Film (Gladiator) effects studio. Mara Bryan (Dark City, The World Is Not Enough will be serving as the movie's visual effects supervisor.

17 March, 2000

Angelina Jolie has been officially cast as Lara Croft. She had a couple things to say to Popcorn about taking the part. "They want to bring me to England to do it," says Jolie. She's very excited about the project but worris that fans of the game might not like her performance. "I hope England will allow me to do it because I know she's one of your girls."

6 March, 2000

Could Angelina Jolie be Lara Croft? That's what Variety is reporting. According to that paper, Jolie is in final negotiations to take on the role. Generally Variety is pretty accurate but this seems a little strange to me. First, director Simon West said he didn't want a well known Hollywood star. Second I've heard Jolie say that she doesn't want to do action movies. She did one in Gone in 60 Seconds, coming out later this year, and she is satisfied with that.

If the movie proves at all popular you can be sure that Paramount will want to make a franchise out of it. This would seem to run contrary to Jolie's stated desires. Until confirmation is official I'm going to assume that this is rumor.

3 March, 2000

Now here is a director I can deal with! Simon West, while talking to Entertainment Weekly, said "No movie made from a videogame has ever worked." I've long held that making movies based on video games is a bad idea. Games tend to have razor thin plots making them poor material to base a movie on. But the first step is to admit that you have a problem.

He also made it clear that they wouldn't be looking for a big name to fill Lara Croft's large... shoes. "We don't want to ram a Hollywood star into this thing, because Lara is visually [known]," West says. "To some, she's the perfect woman, though others would say she's a total male fabrication of what a woman should be." West also made it clear that he wanted someone more in the vein of Sigourney Weaver in Alien than Pamela Anderson Lee in Barb Wire. I guess that means they won't be trying to fill those... shoes.

According to British newspaper The Daily Express, the opening scene of the movie may feature Lara Croft attempting to climb the Millenium Wheel. You may recall that it is the giant 200 foot ferris wheel erected in London for the New Year's celebrations. The problem was that it wouldn't actually work during the celebration. It is fixed now and could find its way onto the big screen.

Shooting is scheduled to begin this May at Pinewood Studios in Britain.

3 February, 2000
More details are surfacing about the suddenly resurgent production. Locations are confirmed as being Thailand and Mexico. The plot centers around an Aztec with a climactic fight there. Rene Russo has apparently been offered the role of Lady Croft, Lara's mother. The part would entail being the target of an elaborate kidnapping. Brian Blessed is the front runner to play Lara's father, Lord Croft. The movie will have a spectacular CGI storm over a temple that was included in the last script and will carry over to this version. Costume tests for the mysterious actress to play Lara Croft are to take place in April. At that time her identity is going to be revealed. All that's known of her at the moment is that her first name is Kim and she is relatively unknown with a fair amount of behind the scenes theatrical work.

2 February, 2000
Just when you think this movie might actually be dead, a new rumor surfaces. This time comes word that the part of Lara Croft may have been cast.

"The script for Tomb Raider is far from dead. A new draft is being prepared with a new Director attatched, and the only real crew attatched at present is the DOP Phil Meyhew (he was the DOP on GOLDENEYE). They have their Lara Croft as well apparently - an unknown actress who's, so I'm told, in her early twenties and comes from a stage background. Her first name is Kim but other than that, I don't know. Filming locations are being asked for in Thailand and Mexico, with the current budget estimate somewhere between thirty and fifty million. The whole thing has been scaled down slightly due to a 'sleeping investment' being involved (from MGM I think), and their concerns over blowing cash big time (as with what happened to "Supernova")."

22 December, 1999
Things keep happening on the project to bring the Lara Croft video game character to the big screen and yet they don't seem to get anywhere. Stephen Herek is apparently out as the director before they even started shooting. Simon West (Con Air) is now in negotiations to take over the directing chores for the movie.

The script by Patrick Massett and John Zinman doesn't seem to have satisfied the suits at Paramount. It might have been overly derivative of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Because of that it looks like a new writing team has been brought in to take a stab at the script. Michael Werb and Michael Colleary will be the new guys on the task, working closely with West and the producers this time.

Theoretically this project is on the fast track but that hasn't translated into results so far. It all points back to my long standing theory that any movie based on a video game will suck.

20 September, 1999
Here is a script review of Steven de Souza's script for the video game movie. Don't take it too seriously as new writers Patrick Massett and John Zinman have been hired to rewrite the script. Still it provides some clue as to where they are trying to take this project. Below is a brief snippet of the review by Stax. I highly recommend heading over to his page to read the rest of the review.

While I appreciated Steven de Souza's respect for the title character and his reality-based approach to telling this story, I was still disappointed by the script's all-too-familiar structure and plotting as well as the lack of dimension in its main characters. True, it's only a popcorn movie based on a video game but it needs to be an adventure film that can stand on its own merits. This TOMB RAIDER draft is a well-meaning but ultimately lackluster take on the adventures of Lara Croft. It would please some folks but is deserving of more than what is found here. Hopefully, this new team of writers can breathe some fresh air into the story before Lara Croft fights her way onto the big screen sometime in the fall of 2000.

9 September, 1999
This project seems to be up in the air still. Stephen Herek (Mr. Holland's Opus, Holy Man) has been considered the director of the movie for some time now but he apparently has yet to officially sign on. He has been working with producer Toby Jaffe and writers Patrick Masset and John Zinman to develop the project. Herek is now considering an offer from Fox to remake Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days. If he decides to accept the offer, Fox will begin production immiediately. This would put his involvement with Tomb Raider very much in question. Furthermore, Steven De Souza had been the name attached to write the script earlier. Has he left the project or is his script being rewritten by the two new guys?

24 May, 1999
Cinescape interviewed Lloyd Levin, producer or Tomb Raider. He says in the interview that production should begin in the fall of this year for an early summer release in 1800. Stephen Herek will be the director. Shooting should take place all over the world, but the only confirmed location is Surrey in Britain. This is the location of Lara Croft's castle. Speaking of the video game heroine, no one has been cast. He said they have ideas who they would like to play the part, but nothing is set. He says the movie will not be campy, that it will be played straight, with a little humor.

13 April, 1999
Paramount is finally close to putting this video game adaptation into motion. Steven de Souza (Street Fighter, Judge Dredd) is writing a script that they actually appear to like enough to settle on a director for the movie. Stephen Herek (101 Dalmations, Holy Man) is the likely director. The big question is if Herek is going to be making Angel Eyes for Disney before working on Tomb Raider. This should be a real loser folks. Video game adaptations always suck, just look at the attempts so far Mortal Kombat I & II, Wing Commander, and Super Mario Bros. With this attempt, they picked a game that's main attraction is the ...um, physical attributes of its main character.