Lara Croft has seen a successful resurgence in popularity thanks to the reboot of her Tomb Raider video game franchise, and Hollywood hopes that the same thing will be possible for the character’s film career as well. Over the last several months, the rumor mill has been churning with the names of possible directors for an adaptation, and now it looks like the movie has found one. Not only is the choice not anybody who had been previously mentioned, they’re not ever the same gender.
It was only a couple of months ago that we heard that Warner Bros. and MGM were looking for a female director. While we heard that Kathryn Bigelow was specifically not interested in doing the film, now it looks like none of the other options were either. Instead, The Hollywood Reporter claims that Norwegian director Roar Uthaug has been chosen to helm the film. If the name doesn’t mean anything to you that’s not surprising. Uthaug has yet to direct a film in English, so this would be his first if it goes forward. His most recent movie, Wave, is a disaster film about a tsunami hitting Norway, and is expected to be submitted to the Academy Awards for consideration in the Best Foreign Film category.
In addition to the new director, the studios are reportedly in negotiations with Transformers 5 scribe Geneva Robertson-Dworet to take a crack at the screenplay. A number of different writers have taken on the script over the last couple years, including former Buffy the Vampire Slayer executive producer Marti Noxon and Snow White and the Huntsman writer Evan Daugherty. Daugherty was only brought in nine months ago, so if they’re already looking at bringing in some fresh blood, it appears the studios were not happy with the script. Early word was that the story deals with a younger Lara Croft, much like the new games have done, though with the script moving through so many hands it’s possible that a lot has changed.
It was a few months ago that Warner Bros. and MGM reached a deal to co-produce a reboot of the series, and since then work on the new film has picked up some steam but hasn’t really made any serious headway. Now that they finally have a director, discussions with possible leads will likely begin. Nobody has even been rumored to take on the role that Angelina Jolie held in the two previous films.
If new Tomb Raider movies are as good as the most recent games, we’re all for this. Of course, the studio could probably help themselves out a lot by calling Rhianna Pratchett, the writer responsible for turning Lara Croft from an exaggerated object into a relatable character. Just a thought.
