Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider went through many drafts and several writers, which resulted in production delays. In 1998, writer Brent V. Friedman, who had co-written Mortal Kombat: Annihilation the year before, penned an unproduced Tomb Raider script. Producer and screenwriter Steven E. de Souza, who wrote and directed the 1994 video game film Street Fighter, penned an early draft of the Tomb Raider script in 1999, but it was rejected by Paramount. The final draft of the script was attributed to five writers, including director Simon West.

Lara Croft was financed through Tele München Gruppe (TMG), a German tax shelter. The tax law of Germany allowed investors to take an instant tax deduction even on non-German productions and even if the film has not gone into production. By selling them the copyright for $94 million and then buying it back for $83.8 million, Paramount Pictures made $10.2 million. The copyright was then sold again to Lombard Bank, a British investment group and a further $12 million was made. However, to qualify for Section 48 tax relief, the production must include some UK filming and British actors, which was acceptable for a film partially set in the United Kingdom. Presales to distributors in Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain made a further $65 million. Showtime paid $6.8 million for premium cable television rights. In total, $94 million was put together.[3]

The announcement of the film generated significant discussion about who would be cast to play Lara Croft. Numerous actresses (and non-actresses) were rumoured to be on the shortlist to play her and countless others declared their interest in the role,[4] most notably Jennifer Love Hewitt, Famke Janssen, Jennifer Lopez, Rhona Mitra, Elizabeth Hurley, Ashley Judd, Sandra Bullock, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Diane Lane, Demi Moore and Denise Richards, with many considering the latter the favourite to win the role.[4][5][6]

The casting of Jolie was controversial among many fans of the Tomb Raider series, who felt she wasn't physically appropriate enough to play the large-breasted heroine; others complained about an American actress being hired to play a British character; others cited Jolie's tattoos and well-publicised controversial personal life.[6] Director Simon West dismissed these concerns and said, in reference to Jolie's penchant for sexual knife play, "it was always Angelina. I mean, Lara sleeps with knives and doesn't take shit from anybody. That's [Angelina] down to a tee."[6] Jolie wore a padded bra to increase her bust size when playing Lara. As she explained to NY Rock in June 2001: "C'mon, I'm not so flat chested to begin with. When I wear a tight T-shirt, I look a certain way. So it wasn't like we had to completely change me. You know, we just had to enhance me a little. I'm a 36C. Lara, she's a 36D. And in the game, she's a double D, so we took her down some. But we did give her a bit of padding there. For me, it was simply one size. So it was like having a padded bra. But no, I am not flat chested anyway. So we still made it Lara Croft, but we didn't go to any extremes. And Lara doesn't apologize for herself, and for having that, you know, recognizable shape. So I'm not going to apologize for her either."[7][8]

The film marked the feature film debut of television actor Chris Barrie, known for his role of Arnold Rimmer in the BBC science fiction comedy series Red Dwarf. English actor Daniel Craig adopts an American accent for the role of Alex West whilst Jolie, being American herself, takes on an English accent.[9] Jon Voight, Angelina Jolie's father, plays Richard Croft, Lara's father in the film.

Principal photography for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider took place from July 30 to November 30, 2000. Portions of the film were shot on location at the Ta Prohm temple, located in Angkor, Siem Reap Province, Cambodia. The film was the first major motion picture to be shot in Cambodia since Lord Jim in 1964, following the country's occupation by the Khmer Rouge regime.[10] In addition to on-location shooting, a majority of the film's production also took place on the 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios.[11] Hatfield House in Hertfordshire was used as Croft's home in the film.[12]

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is a 2001 soundtrack album to the film. The various artists soundtrack was released June 15, 2001. The Score was later released on June 25, 2001. The movie also featured the song "Lila" by Vas and a Piano rendition of "Largo" from Johann Sebastian Bach's Harpsichord Concerto no. 5 performed by Hae-won Chang. These were not featured on the soundtrack. Also used in the movie were elements of "Elevation (Influx Remix)" by U2. This was uncredited.

For the first Tomb Raider film, Nathan McCree was hired, though the producers eventually decided that a feature-length film needed a feature-name composer. Therefore, they hired Michael Kamen, despite the fact that his score for the similarly cult X-Men the previous year failed to arouse the interest of many of the concept's followers. Kamen wrote and submitted a demo for Tomb Raider, but no feedback on that music was returned by the director or producers. Only during the process of recording a second demo did Kamen finally hear back from the Tomb Raider team, and by then, the lack of enthusiasm for the relationship on both sides caused Kamen to seek other projects that were more promising to him (namely, the HBO show Band of Brothers, requiring 10 hours of music). Thus, the producers of Tomb Raider were forced to hire another composer at the last minute. The man hired for the last minute assignment was Graeme Revell.[15] He composed the soundtrack in less than two weeks.[16] He did not use the original Tomb Raider theme.

The CD was released through Elektra Entertainment, but as noted by Revell and after failed attempts to stop the pressings, the tracks were mislabeled. For example, the opening track includes both the Main Titles and Lara Croft at Home cues together. The resulting score was so poorly received [17] that the composer himself issued an apology through his website.[18] The track list was later revised.[19]

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was released on DVD and VHS on November 13, 2001; a Blu-ray release followed on June 3, 2008. A 4K UHD Blu-ray release followed on February 27, 2018.[20]

On the North American video rental charts, the film grossed $38.5 million in DVD rental revenue, as of December 2001.[21]

Tomb Raider was a box office success. The movie debuted at number one with $48.2 million ahead of Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Shrek.,[22] giving Paramount its second-best debut and the fifth-highest debut of 2001. It beat the opening record for a film featuring a female protagonist ($42.3) million for Scary Movie) as well as the opening record for a video game adaptation ($31 million for Pokémon: The First Movie), and is one of the highest grossing video game to film adaptations.[23][24] The movie has grossed a total of $274,703,340 worldwide.[2]

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider earned positive reviews from 20% of 161 critics, with an average rating of 4/10. The site's consensus is "Angelina Jolie is perfect for the role of Lara Croft, but even she can't save the movie from a senseless plot and action sequences with no emotional impact".[25] According to Metacritic, which assigned the film a weighted average score of 33/100 based on reviews from 31 critics, the film received "generally unfavorable reviews".[26] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B on scale of A to F.[27]

IGN gave the movie the lowest score, a 0.0 ("Disaster") rating, condemning everything from character performances to the ending.[28] Todd McCarthy of Variety said "[the film] has the distinction of being a major motion picture that’s far less imaginative, and quite a bit more stupid, than the interactive game it’s based on." McCarthy praises Jolie but says "everything else about this frenetic production is flat and unexciting."[29][30] A positive review came from Roger Ebert, who awarded the film three out of four stars and said, "'Lara Croft Tomb Raider' elevates goofiness to an art form. Here is a movie so monumentally silly, yet so wondrous to look at, that only a churl could find fault."[31]

The film was nominated for two MTV Movie Awards, these awards included: Best Female Performance and Best Fight scene, but the film lost to Moulin Rouge! and Rush Hour 2 respectively. The film was also nominated for Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie - Drama. Angelina Jolie was nominated for the Worst Actress Golden Raspberry Award for her role in the film, but she lost to Mariah Carey in Glitter.[32]

Angelina Jolie returned in the sequel Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life. While it was viewed as a critical improvement over its predecessor, it did not repeat its financial success, grossing $156 million compared to the previous installment's $274 million.

GK Films first acquired the rights to reboot the film in 2011.[34] In April 2016, MGM and GK Films announced a reboot of the film starring Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft with Roar Uthaug directing.[35][36] It was released March 16, 2018.