Tomb Raider reboot (Now in movie format!)

[Numero Deux]

'Tomb Raider' Reboot Finds Director With 'The Wave' Filmmaker (Exclusive)

Roar Uthaug, the director behind the Norwegian disaster drama The Wave, will direct MGM and Warner Bros.'s feature project that seeks to relaunch a franchise featuring archeologist Lara Croft.

At the same time, Geneva Robertson-Dworet, who penned the Black List script Hibernation and is co-writer on Transformers 5, is in negotiations to write the screenplay.

Croft is the star of a series of hit video games and one of the best known video game characters. She first appeared on screen portrayed by Angelina Jolie in 2001 in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, a blockbuster distributed by Paramount.

Warners has partnered with MGM to produce and release this latest incarnation. Graham King of GK Films is producing the new movie, having picked up the rights from interactive entertainment company Square Enix in 2011. (The property spent a few years in development at Warner Bros. before the rights reverted to Square Enix.) After a couple of years in development, GK partnered with MGM in 2013. Warners came on board in early 2015.

Plot details remain to be unsealed, but the film will detail Croft's first adventure. Evan Daugherty, Marti Noxon and Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby previously worked on the script.

Overseeing for MGM is Cassidy Lange, svp production, while at Warner Bros., Drew Crevello is shepherding. Denis O’Sullivan will run point for GK Films. MGM will oversee production.

Uthaug has quietly directed a range of movies in his homeland, from a horror thriller (Cold Prey) to a children’s adventure (Magic Silver) to a survival action thriller (Escape). Wave dealt with a tsunami that strikes Norway and was shortlisted to be submitted for the best foreign film category of Academy Awards.

Raider would be Uthaug’s English-language debut. He is repped by UTA.

"Tomb Raider" Reboot Confirmed | News | Dark Horizons

It is now being reported that Warners Bros. Pictures and producer Dan Lin ("Sherlock Holmes," "Jonny Quest") are in early development on a reboot of the video game turned film franchise "Tomb Raider" says The Hollywood Reporter.

The rumored recasting as well seems to be a rights issue. Though Paramount previously made the two movies based on the game, the rights have since reverted to Eidos. Time Warner upped its stake to nearly 20% in Eidos in December and films rights to the property became part of that deal.

Much like the recent Batman and James Bond series, the new project will ignore the previous films and will reimagine the origins of Lara Croft, her love interest and the main villain.

As the project is an open-writing assignment, a writer and director are yet to be attached making the casting of Croft herself an unlikely event for a long time yet (sorry Megan Fox fans).

The hugely popular game series, first published in 1996, followed the daredevil archaeologist Lara Croft on a series of global missions. After four subsequent and increasingly panned sequels, the series was put in the hands of new developers who effectively 'rebooted' the series with the game "Tomb Raider: Legend". A direct sequel to that, "Tomb Raider: Underworld", hit stores in November.

Angelina Jolie, Jon Voight and Daniel Craig starred in the first film adaptation in 2001, while Jolie, Gerard Butler and Ciaran Hinds starred in the second in 2003. Despite dreadful reviews the first film scored a major $275 million in international box-office. Reviews were better though still dire for the sequel, while revenue notably sank with only a $157 million global tally.

Warner Bros. Joins MGM on 'Tomb Raider' Reboot

Warner Bros. is coming on board to co-finance “Tomb Raider” with Graham King and MGM with Warners distributing.

Evan Daugherty has been tapped to write the script. His credits include “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “Divergent” and “Snow White and the Huntsman.”

MGM acquired the film rights to the popular videogame in 2013 and partnered with King’s GK Films. King acquired the “Tomb Raider” rights in 2011 from Square Enix and will serve as producer.

The original “Tomb Raider” was published in 1996 by London-based Eidos, which is now part of Square Enix.

Paramount’s two films starring Angelina Jolie as the Brit archaeologist were released in 2001 and 2003 and grossed $432 million worldwide.

Warner Bros., which owned 20% of Eidos, subsequently launched development of a Tomb Raider project with Dan Lin producing, but the feature rights went to Square Enix after it bought Eidos in 2009 for $120 million.

In 2013, Square Enix released a “Tomb Raider” as an origin story rebooting the franchise, in which the player controls a younger Lara Croft who is shipwrecked and finds herself stranded on a mysterious island.

“Tomb Raider” is the latest in a growing list of MGM-Warner Bros. partnerships including
The Hobbit trilogy, “If I Stay,” “Hot Pursuit,” “Max” and “Creed.”