Sony may be full steam ahead in bringing the adventure video game series Uncharted to the big screen, but Warner Bros. has been silently chipping away at making its own video game adaptation about an adventurous archeologist. The Tomb Raider reboot has its hero in the form of Alicia Vikander, and now they have just found the actor who will play a key figure in the upcoming adaptation. Actor Dominic West has been cast in the role of Lara Croft's father.
The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Dominic West has been cast as Lord Richard Croft, the father of classic video game heroine, Lara Croft. Richard Croft is a key figure in the Tomb Raider mythos and he was previously played by Jon Voight in the Angelina Jolie-led Tomb Raider movies. In the reboot, Lara sets out on her first expedition in order to finish her father's research and clear his disgraced name.
The movie takes some of its inspiration from the recent Tomb Raider video games from Square Enix, wherein Richard Croft believed in the supernatural and died in disgrace. Lara, who didn't believe her father, sets out to find a mythical island from his research and finds more than she bargained for when she and her crew are left stranded. Vengeful ghosts, a supernatural storm, and murderous cultists soon prove that her father wasn't so crazy after all. In the games, Richard was present mostly through flashbacks and voiceovers, but the film version will be a bit more ambiguous and center around Lara exploring if he is actually alive.
Dominic West has a number of roles under his belt and is perhaps best known for his parts as Theron in 300 and Detective James McNulty in The Wire. He currently stars in HBO's The Affair, which is airing its third season. Coincidentally, this will not be the first time West has played Vikander's father; he held the same role in the film Testament of Youth.
Dominic West joins a so far small cast that includes Vikander, Walton Goggins (Vice Principals) and Daniel Wu (Into the Badlands). Goggins plays the antagonist of the film, while Wu plays Lu Ren, a ship captain who partners up with Lara. The reboot is directed by Roar Uthaug (The Wave) with a script penned by Geneva Robertson-Dworet.
This new Tomb Raider movie is shaping up quite nicely in the cast department, and if it's anything like the recent video games, audiences could be in for a real treat with this one. The film is currently scheduled to release on March 16, 2018. Make sure to keep it here at CinemaBlend and we'll be sure to keep you updated on all things Tomb Raider when that information becomes available.
