2016 will be a year fondly remembered by fans of all things Lara Croft as the moment when the decorated Tomb Raider franchise celebrated its 20th anniversary. In that time, Miss. Croft has gone on to become a cornerstone of the video game industry, while also appearing on the silver screen thanks to a brace of Angelina Jolie-fronted actioners across 2001 and 2003.
Aside from maybe Screen Gems’ lucrative Resident Evil series, few video game movie adaptations resonated with moviegoers during the early 2000s, though Warner Bros. will be hoping to tap into the renewed demand for pixelated heroes with its planned Tomb Raider reboot.
Pegged for early 2018, the studio has already elected Roar Uthaug to direct the live-action adventure, while the so-hot-right-now Alicia Vikander will be picking up the torch as Lara Croft. Beyond the fact that Uthaug and Co. will mine Crystal Dynamics’ rebooted video game series for inspiration, little is known about the actual story underpinning Warner’s redo, but producer Graham King has now shed some light on the narrative at hand. Chatting to HeyUGuys (via CBM), King noted that the 2018 reboot is primed to take Lara back to her roots for a story that will involve her wayward father, Richard James Croft.
“Well this is kind of what we call a ‘back to the roots story.’ This is a young Lara Croft in search to see if her father is dead or alive, so it has a very emotional part to it and i think that’s what Alicia found so interesting about it. I think the storytelling is really good and I think we’ve got the right crew and a great director and I think it’s going to be really fun making a film like this.”
Tomb Raider is due to arrive on March 16, 2018 and will seemingly bring a “new and fresh” take on the legendary archaeologist.