Alicia Vikander is Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

[Aragorn]

Couldn't find a thread on this movie so here we go...

Alicia Vikander to Play Lara Croft in ‘Tomb Raider’ Reboot

“The Danish Girl” star Alicia Vikander has nabbed one of Hollywood’s most coveted leading roles.

Vikander will be playing Lara Croft in the MGM and GK Films’ “Tomb Raider” reboot, it was announced Thursday. Norwegian helmer Roar Uthaug is on board to direct.

While other actresses had met for the role, including Daisy Ridley, source indicate that Vikander had always been the first choice. The reason for the delay of announcement was that the studio was waiting for a new draft of the script, sources say.

CLICK HERE for full story on Variety.

 

[Christopher]

I'm surprised, since Vikander seems a bit dainty for the role. But she's 5' 5 1/2", and apparently this is going to be based on the "reboot continuity" in which Lara is 5'6", as opposed to the original where she was 5'9". And it turns out Angelina Jolie is only an inch taller than Vikander, which surprises me, because she seems so statuesque.

 

[Gaith]

Vikander is a first-rate actress and one of the world's most beautiful women; I've been a fan since 2012's A Royal Affair. She totally deserves a big-paycheck role. And it's silly of me to criticize a casting decision when I haven't read the script, and have no idea what tone they're going for.

That said, I can't help being disappointed; I was hoping for someone tougher-looking, and not so generically (if spectacularly) pretty. And lest anyone think that's a gender-specific complaint, I'd have said the same about casting Hayden Christensen as Luke's dad.

 

[Christopher]

Vikander impressed me in Ex Machina, but I agree, she's a bit more ethereal than I would've imagined. But then, they're casting an actress, not a model, so there have to be other considerations besides looks. As I often point out, Hugh Jackman doesn't look a thing like Wolverine; they've taken a short, stocky, hairy, animalistic brute and reimagined him as a tall, handsome leading man.

And I don't follow Tomb Raider news much at all, but I have gathered that the "reboot" version of Lara is a younger, more vulnerable, less glamorized figure who hasn't yet grown into the tough, hardcore character of the earlier games, but begins to become that during the events of the reboot game. So I can see why they might favor Vikander for something like that.

 

[Forbin]

It's been about a century since i played the game, but I checked out the comics last year, and the way Lara was depicted in the comics fits with Vikander's physicality. I thought Jolie was perfect casting in the first film, but the second film was pretty awful. So what the heck, let's try again and see what happens.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I really need to see Ex Machina but I did see Caity Lotz in The Machine which sounds very similar. Now she'd have the physicality down at least.

The new Tomb Raider, like the Far Cry series, is about an average person trying to survive after being stranded on an island with hostile forces. Throughout the game her skills and demeanor are shaped by the things that happen to her and the things she does to survive. Much different from the original Lara Croft who lives in a mansion and kills dinosaurs in huge tombs with her double pistols.

 

[John Clark]

I've thought she's done a good job in the films I've seen her in and can see her working for the rebooted Lara.

Be interested to see if the script is good though.

 

[Christopher]

I really need to see Ex Machina but I did see Caity Lotz in The Machine which sounds very similar. Now she'd have the physicality down at least.

I haven't seen The Machine, but it's safe to say that Ex Machina is in a class by itself. Very smart, thoughtful, plausible, and creepy, very well-acted and well-made (quite a low-budget and intimate production, but with top-notch VFX and some great location work). If nothing else, it's a chance to see Oscar Isaac and Domnhall Gleeson playing pretty much the total opposite of their Star Wars characters.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Watched Ex Machina on the second monitor while working on nominally important stuff on the other. It's an interesting companion piece to The Machine which I'm assuming was an inspiration given the title, aesthetics, the name Ava, Turing test shenaningans and AIs with feelings (or not), remote facilities and so on. The Machine is the B-Movie version and doesn't have Oscar Issac but does have a great performance by Caity Lotz.

After watching it, it will be interesting to see Alicia Vikander's take on Lara Croft because she is not the most obvious casting option for the role.

 

[Christopher]

Watched Ex Machina on the second monitor while working on nominally important stuff on the other. It's an interesting companion piece to The Machine which I'm assuming was an inspiration given the title, aesthetics, the name Ava, Turing test shenaningans and AIs with feelings (or not), remote facilities and so on. The Machine is the B-Movie version and doesn't have Oscar Issac but does have a great performance by Caity Lotz.

I watched the behind-the-scenes features on the Ex Machina DVD, and Alex Garland didn't say anything about The Machine being an influence, as far as I recall. More likely they both draw on similar influences, which is very common in works that share a genre or subject matter. Wikipedia says that the director of The Machine read a lot of books on robotics and AI in researching the film, and I know that Garland did much the same. Maybe they read some of the same books.

Laypeople always assume that similarity is proof of deliberate borrowing, but the fact is that it happens by accident constantly, since we're all drawing on the same cultural vocabulary and pool of ideas. It's not something creators seek out, but something we have to strive to avoid because it's so commonplace. It would be a whole lot easier to sell our work if other people weren't constantly beating us to the same ideas. (I can't tell you how many times a new SF novel has frustrated me because it featured an idea that I wanted to do but could never quite get to work. I'm in the middle of reading one now, as it happens.) So if creators know that what they're doing is similar to some other recent work, they'll change it, because nobody wants to be accused of unoriginality or get an idea rejected because it's already been done. So contrary to popular belief, such similarities are more likely to be proof that the two productions were completely unaware of each other.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Interesting coincidences, then. Anyway, I wasn't trying to suggest it was a rip-off as it went in different directions than the other project but perhaps got there more independently then I guessed. Take out that part and the rest of what I said still stands.

 

[Mr Light]

Damn. I was hoping for Daisy Ridley.

 

[Gaith]

^ Well, now she can play the love interest.