'Tomb Raider' franchise to get reboot at Warner Bros.

Original star Angelina Jolie not expected to return

By HitFix Staff Thursday, Jan 29, 2009 1:23 AM

Angelina Jolie was the first Lara Croft on the big screen and now it appears she won't be the last.

Credit: Paramount Pictures

First "Twilight" and now "Tomb Raider"? According to the Hollywood Reporter, Paramount Pictures let the rights to the popular Eidos video game franchise lapse and now Warner Bros. and producer Dan Lin have come on board to reboot the Lara Croft movie series only six years since the second cinematic installment.

Inside Analysis

The biggest question about this news is why Paramount Pictures, who is seemingly hungry for new franchises after DreamWorks departed late last year, would let the movie rights lapse back to Eidos, the company who created the "Tomb Raider" video game. Didn't the studio recently make the same mistake with "Twilight"? Yeah, that turned out well.

It's possible a previous agreement with Mutual Film Company, who co-financed the original films and hasn't produced anything since 2006's "The Hoax," may have complicated matters. Still, if Warner Bros. is able to resurrect the franchise it will another stinging embarrassment to the current Paramount regime.

- Gregory Ellwood

[Editor's note: Ellwood worked on the marketing campaigns for both "Tomb Raider" films]

The report insinuates that Angelina Jolie, who starred in 2000's "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" and 2003's "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life," is not expected to appear in the new franchise. Instead, a new actress will likely come on board after a writer and director are attached. As HitFix's Drew McWeeny reported earlier this week, Megan Fox has been rumored as a possible candidate.

Additionally, Lin and company are expected to retool Ms. Croft and her mission. The new film will bear little resemblance to the original films with a new love interest and villain (not difficult considering both died in each films).

Intriguing note, at the time, little known Daniel Craig and Gerard Butler played her love interests in both pictures that were directed by Simon West and Jan de Bont. It will be interesting to see if Lin can recruit a more creative talent to helm for the reboot. The picture is actually an open-writing assignment with no screenwriters on board at this time. So, clearly, a new "Tomb Raider" film is a few years away.

Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin, the duo behind the "Hellboy" franchise and "Watchmen," produced the initial "Tomb Raider" films. The first picture grossed $275 million worldwide, the second a disappointing $157 million.