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. West reverted back to the original writers after he replaced Stephen Herek as director.[4]

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.[5]

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,[6] 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.[6][7][8]

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.[8] 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."[8] 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."[9][10]

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.[11] 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.[12] In addition to on-location shooting, a majority of the film's production also took place on the 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios.[13] Hatfield House in Hertfordshire was used as Croft's home in the film.[14]

Simon West's first director's cut of the film was around 130 minutes long, and that was before it went through re-shoots some time later after principal photography was finished. West was removed from working on the film in post due to some problems between him and Paramount, however he did return to work on re-shoots. Editor Stuart Baird was brought in by Paramount to re-edit the entire film. He was well known for coming in at last minute to help film studios by fixing up their films which went through troubled productions and had problems with earlier cuts. Baird was promised the job of directing Star Trek: Nemesis by Paramount in exchange for re-editing original 130 minute cut of this film and John Woo's original 210 minute cut of Mission: Impossible 2. Due to all the work on post production taking longer than anyone thought it would, and how rushed it was, some of the major effects were apparently left unfinished by the time the film was released in theaters. Baird ended up re-editing the film down to 88 minutes. One of the bigger cuts on the film was changing the original score. Originally, Nathan McCree was hired to compose the score, since he already composed the music for some of Tomb Raider games, but Paramount insisted on a more well known composer. Greg Hale Jones started to work on the score with Peter Afterman in November 2000, right after production was finished, and Danny Elfman composed the main theme for the film. Jones later said how once West was fired from the film, his score and Elfman's theme were shelved. Michael Kamen was then hired and he submitted a couple of demos, although according to Tales From Development Hell by David Hughes, Kamen did in fact compose full score which was rejected once the film was re-edited by Baird. Graeme Revell was then brought in and he had to compose sixty minutes of music inside ten days. Some earlier reports about the film mentioned John Powell as one of original choices for composer, and Fatboy Slim too. Jerry Goldsmith was also attached to score the film at one point, but he couldn't do it due to problems with his health at the time.[15][16][17][18]

Despite large amount of film that was cut out, only four deleted scenes, in total seven minutes long, were included as extras on film's DVD and Blu-Ray releases. Trailers for the film show more deleted scenes. At the time of its release in July 2001, Simon West said in an interview how he already prepared alternate version of the film for DVD release which would include lot of deleted scenes, but this version was never released. Angelina Jolie's nude scenes were also cut out for PG-13 rating. The shower scene for example originally had actual nude shots of Lara, and next scene where she throws her towel away originally showed some rear nudity from her, however according to Jolie she used body double for her nude shots. One of the special features of the film, Digging Into Tomb Raider, shows filming of another deleted scene where Lara is showering but this one takes place in some outside location. Some of the earlier scripts for the film included more scenes focusing on Lara's sex appeal, like Lara flashing her breasts to some villains as distraction (Steven E. de Souza February 1999 script), using her breasts to crush giant millipede (Mike Werb & Michael Colleary November 1999 script), and many similar scenes (reportedly including her showering, bathing, skinny dipping, losing her bikini while fighting some creature...), but probably due to possible rating problems, this was changed and toned down with each new script. Jolie later said how she was disappointed with how Lara's sexual appeal was scaled down, and how she thought Lara wasn't sexy enough in the final film.[19][20][21][22][23]

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 film 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.

Graeme Revell composed the soundtrack in less than two weeks,[26] following failed attempts by other composers.[27]

The CD was released through Elektra Entertainment. As noted by Revell, the tracks were mislabeled after failed attempts to stop the pressings. For example, the opening track includes both the Main Titles and Lara Croft at Home cues together. The resulting score caused the composer himself to issue an apology "for the poor listening experience" through his website.[27] The track list was later revised.[28]

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.[29]

On the North American video rental charts, the film grossed $38.5 million in DVD rental revenue, as of December 2001.[30] In the United Kingdom, it was watched by 7 million viewers on television in 2004, making it the year's sixth most-watched film (and third most-watched British film) on television.[31]

Tomb Raider was a box office success and debuted at number one with $48.2 million, ahead of Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Shrek,[32] giving Paramount its second-best debut after Mission: Impossible 2 and the fifth-highest debut of 2001. In addition, it had the fourth largest June opening weekend, behind Jurassic Park, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and Batman Forever.[33] 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.[34][35][36] The film grossed a total of $274,703,340 worldwide.[3]

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider received generally negative reviews from critics.[37] On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 20% of 163 critic reviews are positive for the film, and the 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."[38] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 33 out of 100, based on reviews from 31 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[39] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B on scale of A to F.[40]

IGN gave the film the lowest out of all the scores, a 0.0 ("Disaster") rating, condemning everything from character performances to the ending.[41] 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."[42][43] 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."[44]

In 2018, IGN reported that the film was "generally regarded as one of the better video game adaptations".[36]

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.[45]

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.[47] In April 2016, MGM and GK Films announced a reboot of the film starring Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft with Roar Uthaug directing.[48][49] It was released March 16, 2018.