It was only a matter of time before Hollywood decided to take another crack at turning the video game series Tomb Raider into an action franchise. They actually had some measure of success in the early 2000’s with the two Lara Croft: Tomb Raider films starring Angelina Jolie but come on that was like eight years ago and total ancient history. GK Films is tackling the new adaptation, and amidst all the casting rumors, we have some actual concrete news when it comes to the writing.
Deadline reports that Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (is that a real name?), the duo behind the original Iron Man as well as this summer’s soon to be blockbuster Cowboys and Aliens, have been hired to script a new Tomb Raider movie. This will be an all-new story not connected to the video games or the two movies that came before it, so calling it a “reboot” is misleading. It’s just an unnecessary second attempt at something that already got successfully adapted a decade ago.
In his article, Mike Fleming also brought up a good point: who the hell would play Lara Croft? They already got the person best suited for the role on the first go round, after all. I’ve seen some speculation, and personally I think Olivia Wilde could pull it off the best. She’s got the look and the potential to be kick-ass in the role. But it isn’t up to me, it’s up to GK Films to decide who gets the role. Let’s just hope they are smart about this; they started off well by courting a writing team that has been successful with scripting action films that are also smart (the duo also did Children of Men). If they can keep up the smart decision making, this Tomb Raider may be the best of them all.
Tomb Raider is tentatively scheduled to be released in 2013.