“ If you have the lineage narration , that ’s a way for us to get to hump our character , to feel for them , to tie in to them on a more human level , ” star Alicia Vikander allege of the unexampled Tomb Raider moving picture , based on the hit video plot serial . This is unfeigned , but it also poses a very unique trouble for the film : How to tell Lara Croft ’s origin when the TV game already did it really , really well ?
The fan - favorite franchise wasrebooted in 2013 in a Modern game just titled Tomb Raider . In it , a youthful ( and pointedly less tingling ) Lara Croft gets maroon on an island full of trigger-happy cult members and equally violent supernatural warriors . The appeal of the secret plan was how it turned the titular raider of grave into a three - dimensional character , evidence her early development from a new fair sex with a preference for research into a resourcefulness , resilient action - archaeologist . The biz was a monumental critical and commercial smasher .
It was also an origin tarradiddle , and its success kept the game firmly on the stars ’ and filmmakers ’ minds . “ I think [ the game developers ] did brilliant work in contribute Lara Croft to a more contemporary setting , ” theater director Roar Uthaug told io9 . “ After I got the job , when we were discussing script and action tantrum and stuff like that , we kept going back to the game to see what they have done and to be enliven . ”
So how to make a film that was more than just a live - natural process version of the game ? First of all , by starting further back in Lara ’s life . The movie does n’t begin in a jungle or ancient urban center ( or a tomb ) , but in the streets of London with a vernal woman , as Vikander said , “ trying to find her footing in the world ”
“ What ’s really important is that you experience Lara Croft as a real case , ” Uthaug said . “ I did n’t want to make her rich , experience in a mansion . I wanted her on the street of East London , work as a bike courier , trying to make end meet . Kind of renounce her old inheritance , and then she gets pulled into this big corking dangerous undertaking that she ’s in no way prepared for . ”
Since this is still a Tomb Raider movie , Lara Croft also has to kick ass , kill speculative guys , figure out puzzle , jump across chasms , and everything else instrumentalist do in the game . She ca n’t pass the whole movie getting ready to do that . So Uthaug , along with producer Graham King and screenwriters Geneva Robertson - Dworet and Alastair Siddons , tried to divide the proportionality in the movie — make it an origin storey , but also a write up where you ascertain how Lara can recoil ass , figure out teaser , etc .
“ It was significant to us to set her up with some abilities , ” Uthaug say . “ That ’s why in London you see her preparation MMA or biking . You see that she ’s a strong-arm person and she has some capabilities , although she ’s in no way quick for what she ’s about to face . And then you view her kind of grow . Through each ordeal , she gets hard . I reckon that it ’s also important to see her fail and to see her pick herself and then keep on going . ”
Vikander , too , saw the movie as a challenge — not just in terms of growing the character , but on a more thematic scale . “ I ’ve done a circumstances of art home films , ” she said . “ [ But in ] a film like this , you ’re capable to blend these magnanimous spectacles with heart and find something that is strand . To make an artful , interesting story , commercial and big and trashy as it should be — that , I think , is the biggest challenge . ”
Uthaug had the same challenge , but as theatre director , he also had to provide that aforesaid spectacle — all while obviate the all - too - conversant mantra that video game movies breastfeed . While he did n’t think of the cinematic stereotype as a potential curse on the movie , he thinks he knows how to transcend it anyway .
“ What was important to me and what I palpate is crucial in any movie , is you have to care about the character , ” Uthaug enjoin . “ If you do n’t give care about the character it does n’t matter how self-aggrandising the spectacle is . So that was our mantra . Get to know Lara , who she is , take root for her , see her battle and , through that struggle , through her ordeal , [ and ] watch how she becomes the Tomb Raider . ”
Tomb Raider open March 16 .
Alicia VikanderTomb Raider
Daily Newsletter
Get the dependable technical school , science , and refinement tidings in your inbox daily .
News from the future , delivered to your present .
You May Also Like
