Enlarge imageBy Steven Zeitchik
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Lara Croft could soon embark on a new big-screen mission.
Warners Bros. and producer Dan Lin are in early development on a reboot of "Tomb Raider," the popular video-game action franchise.
"Tomb Raider," which was published in 1996 by a London-based video-game company called Eidos, was a wildly popular game that followed the daredevil archaeologist Lara Croft on a series of global missions. Several spin-off games have been published since, with a 10th-anniversary edition of the game released in 2006.
Paramount has made two movies, starring Angelina Jolie, based on the game. But the rights have since reverted to Eidos. When Time Warner upped its stake in Eidos to 19.92 percent in December, films rights to the property were included as part of the deal.
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The project is still in its nascent stages. An actress who could play the role Jolie made famous would likely not be cast until after a writer and director have been hired.
"Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," which came out in 2001, grossed a whopping $275 million (193 million pounds) worldwide. The 2003 follow-up, "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life," earned a far more modest $157 million.
The first pic concerned Croft's race against a secret society known as the Illuminati to find a key, and the second cantered on her quest to find Pandora's Box.
The new project, however, is expected to revamp the character and her mission, and bear little resemblance to the original pictures. It will reimagine the origins of the character, a love interest and a villain.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
