Hollywood is rebooting "Tomb Raider" for the big screen and it is scheduled to run in 2018. Cast as Lara Croft is the latest It Girl, Academy-award winning actress Alicia Vikander. The character was previously played by Angelina Jolie in 2001 that comparisons between the two stars cannot be avoided. But how different will Alicia Vikander's Lara Croft be different from Angelina Jolie's take?
Cinema Blend talked with Crystal Dynamics executive Rich Briggs, whose company is behind the newest "Tomb Raider" games that were revived beginning 2013. The 2018 movie is supposedly based on these games and it will be a "modern survival-action origin story timeline as opposed to the classic [Lara Croft]."
In these versions, Lara Croft is just learning and figuring out what she can do. She's not yet the "Tomb Raider" and hasn't honed her skills as an archeologist and treasure hunter. She's challenged by her limitations and lack of resources, but this will help show the viewers the origins of Lara Croft.
Lara Croft's physical appearance in "Tomb Raider" 2018 is also different from the more confident and mature Lara Croft in the earlier "Tomb Raider" movie with Angelina Jolie. In the new version, she's wearing more practical clothes. Viewers expecting to see Lara Croft in her trademark shorts won't see this in Alicia Vikander.
Alicia Vikander said that she used to play the old "Tomb Raider" games as a kid and loved it because it featured a female protagonist. Now that she's taking on the character's origin story, she hopes the movie "will bring something new and fresh that'll stand on its own two legs," the actress told Hit Fix. "You get into an emotional aspect of getting to know Lara hopefully in an in-depth way," she added.
The new "Tomb Raider" with Alicia Vikander is going to be directed by Roar Uthuag. Its official theater date is set for March 16, 2018.
