"Tomb Raider" reboot finally finds director

PanARMENIAN.Net - After more than five years in development, the Tomb Raider reboot has unearthed a director, The Hollywood Reporter reveals.

Roar Uthaug, the director behind the Norwegian disaster drama The Wave, will direct MGM and Warner Bros.'s feature project that seeks to relaunch a franchise featuring archeologist Lara Croft.

At the same time, Geneva Robertson-Dworet, who penned the Black List script Hibernation and is co-writer on Transformers 5, is in negotiations to write the screenplay.

Croft is the star of a series of hit video games and one of the best known video game characters. She first appeared on screen portrayed by Angelina Jolie in 2001 in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, a blockbuster distributed by Paramount.

Warners has partnered with MGM to produce and release this latest incarnation. Graham King of GK Films is producing the new movie, having picked up the rights from interactive entertainment company Square Enix in 2011. (The property spent a few years in development at Warner Bros. before the rights reverted to Square Enix.) After a couple of years in development, GK partnered with MGM in 2013. Warners came on board in early 2015.

Plot details remain to be unsealed, but the film will detail Croft's first adventure. Evan Daugherty, Marti Noxon and Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby previously worked on the script.

Overseeing for MGM is Cassidy Lange, svp production, while at Warner Bros., Drew Crevello is shepherding. Denis O’Sullivan will run point for GK Films. MGM will oversee production.

Uthaug has quietly directed a range of movies in his homeland, from a horror thriller (Cold Prey) to a children’s adventure (Magic Silver) to a survival action thriller (Escape). Wave dealt with a tsunami that strikes Norway and was shortlisted to be submitted for the best foreign film category of Academy Awards.

Raider would be Uthaug’s English-language debut.