The return of Lara Croft and Tomb Raider to the cinematic landscape after a 15-year gap has made many video game fans very, very happy.
It turns out that there was one person in particular who was especially thrilled to not just see the franchise come back, but to learn that Alicia Vikander was playing the leading role, too.
That individual was Angelina Jolie, who previously played Lara Croft in 2001’s “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” and its 2003 follow-up “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle Of Life,” and just so happens to be a bona-fide Hollywood A-lister, an Oscar winning actress and a critically acclaimed director, too.
I recently had the chance to speak to “Tomb Raider” producer Graham King, during which time he admitted that he had actually been working with Jolie when he got the rights to the reboot. I then asked King how Jolie had responded to the potential “Tomb Raider” reboot.
“She was thrilled. She was thrilled that the franchise was coming back. She is a big fan of Lara Croft. She was absolutely thrilled that we were taking it on, especially because I don’t really come from genre pictures.”
“She could see the appeal of turning the 2013 video game story into a cinematic experience. Especially because it paid tribute to the game, too, so that meant that we weren’t cheating the gamers.”
King was very much aware that those involved in “Tomb Raider” had a huge job on their hands not just in matching Jolie’s version of the character, but also in “letting people know that Alicia Vikander’s version of Lara Croft was much different, too.”
Vikander has certainly done just that with her Lara Croft. You can now marvel over her performance in “Tomb Raider,” as it has just been released into cinemas.
