‘Tomb Raider’ Reboot Wants Daisy Ridley as New Lara Croft
Not sure if you saw that Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie that came out a few months ago, but if you missed it, I’ll let you in on a little something: actress Daisy Ridley is pretty great! You can have your beefs with J.J. Abrams and his lens flares and mystery boxes all you want, but you can’t deny that the man has a remarkable eye for talent. Whether it’s Jennifer Garner, Evangeline Lilly or Keri Russell the man has been able to pluck some seriously talented actors from obscurity. Daisy Ridley deserves every bit of fame she’ll get from the new Star Wars films, and according to a new report, she could be ready to star in another franchise: Tomb Raider.
According to a report from Deadline, the producers of the new Tomb Raider movie have set their sights on Ridley to replace Angelina Jolie as the new Lara Croft. Now they caution that as of this point there has been no formal offer and no negotiations have taken place, but “conversations have taken place” between the Ridley’s reps and Paramount. How far those conversations have gotten, remains to be seen.
Despite her success, Ridley has yet to sign on to any additional non-Star Wars projects. One potential stumbling block is the time commitment that comes along with filming a new Star Wars movie on a regular basis. While bouncing between projects is easier for someone like Oscar Isaac, whose Poe Dameron is more of a supporting character, Ridley is the star of these movies and her presence is required on a near daily level. Not to mention the sheer amount of publicity. It doesn’t make it impossible for Ridley to star in another film (Jennifer Lawrence managed to juggle both The Hunger Games and X-Men franchises, even though she did admit it was exhausting), just could make the scheduling work a challenge.
The upcoming movie is said to be based on Square Enix’s 2013 game reboot, which followed a much younger Lara Croft who was just learning the tricks of the raiding tombs trade. Roar Uthaug, who just released the Norwegian thriller The Wave, is directing the film for Paramount. A 2017 release date was originally announced but at this date, without a script or a star, that seems unlikely.