For most of this dead gossip morning, one of HuffPo’s top Entertainment stories was about Angelina Jolie being “OUT” of her “iconic role” as Lara Croft. While I clicked on the story and read it, I was left with a serious case of “meh” face. We already knew that Angelina wasn’t going to be playing Lara Croft again – she’s said in several interviews over the past few years that she wasn’t interested, and there’s been gossip about a Jolie-less Lara Croft re-boot for years. So why all the drama? Why are people pushing this idea that Angelina was somehow pushed out of a role that she wanted? I literally have no idea.
The crux of the new gossip is that the rights to the Lara Croft property have just been bought by GK Films, which is headed by producer Graham King. Oh, and they want someone “young”. I guess that’s supposed to be the cut on Jolie? That she’s not “young” enough to play Lara Croft?
Lara Croft will be back — but an actress other than Angelina Jolie will be shooting the guns and wearing those tight short-shorts.
GK Films and producer Graham King (The Departed, The Town) have acquired the film rights to the sexy videogame heroine, with plans to reboot the Tomb Raider film franchise, Entertainment Weekly reports.
A pre-Brad Pitt Jolie, now 35, played daredevil archaeologist Lara Croft in two 2001 and 2003 blockbusters. (The action-adventure flicks grossed $432 million worldwide; while the Lara Croft video games have sold over 35 million units since launching in 1996.).
The next Tomb Raider film, slated for 2013, will be a “reboot” featuring a “young and dynamic Lara Croft,” according to the release posted at Deadline.com — which likely puts Jolie out of the running for the role.
Not that Jolie is that interested. Back in 2004, when asked about becoming Lara again, she told website Ugo.com, “I don’t think so. I just don’t feel like I need to, because I felt very happy with the last one, which was kind of the one we wanted to do. The first one kind of frustrated us, because we were trying something new. The second one, I felt like that’s kind of how I wanted to do it, and I don’t really feel the need to do another one.”
[From Us Weekly]
A couple of interesting tidbits: Graham King also produced The Tourist, and he and Jolie got along so well, he produced her directorial feature film debut, that still-untitled Bosnian love story. King has also got Jolie attached to a couple more of his projects too. So… something tells me that there’s a lot of professional respect between those two, and that if Jolie wanted it, she could have the Lara Croft role again.
Also: A few years ago, Megan Fox was considered the frontrunner to take over the Lara Croft role if and when there was ever a reboot. Unfortunately, Megan’s big mouth got in the way, and she made it clear that she didn’t wouldn’t want the part if it was ever offered to her. And the latest name to be pushed around is Olivia Wilde. Who would SUCK.
My hopes for the role: Mila Kunis (why not?) and…? I got nothing. Maybe they should actually go with a British chick this time. NOT KEIRA KNIGHTLEY.
Sigh… these old Lara Croft-era photos of La Jolie have made me nostalgic for the days when she would cut a bitch while boning them. I miss her!
Photos courtesy of WENN.
bigger question is-why the f*** is there ia reboot? just let it lie! I love Jolie but the world really doesnt need another tomb raider movie!
I think she was offered a 4th movie way back when she was pregnant with Shiloh and turned it down then. This is so not news.
She moved on from Lara Croft ten years ago; so should everybody else.
Damn, how can you take a god-given glorious body like that and starve it so much? She was AMAZING back then.
I always called Wilde the poor man’s Jolie, so I guess, whatever. It’s not like I’m lining up to see it anyway.
good movies.
not keira knightly!
@TQB she famously was asked to put on weight (I think 30lbs) for that role and had alot of trouble keeping it on. I agree that she looked her best at that weight but it isn’t her natural build.
Sparing A/V nerds the world over from that awful accent.
Why is there a re-boot of a movie (based on a video game, no less!) that is less than 20 years old? Honestly, H-Weird should just call itself Xerox. There are no original ideas in moives; just attempts at execution of formerly original ideas.
I don’t think there should be a reboot in the first place. It’s only been a decade since the first Lara Croft movie (then again, they’re doing it with Spiderman already).
Anyways, my pick for the role would actually be Eva Green. I mean, we were all pretty hopeful of her being in the next Batman movie, but she didn’t make the cut. I think she would be a bad-ass Lara Croft 🙂
Keep those chestless wonders away from this role.
Back then she was so cute.
As a fan of the Tomb Raider series, I mean the games, I hated the movies. They were bad on so many levels. Based on games movies may be good at the box office, but are hard to do decently and frankly I don’t need another TR flick.
@mln76, I remember that they padded her boobs and that she did a lot of hardcore training, but I don’t remember anything about 30 lbs – my god, that would be over 25% of her body weight! But I take your point – can we all agree that back in those days her natural state was quite a bit softer and curvier? Like in Gia, for example?
yeah, if she wanted the role I’m SURE they’d give it to her.
as for her not being “young” enough…though Jolie’s not “old” by any means, I do think of Croft as a young 20’s type so, yeah, Jolie is probably too “old” to play that role.
I think Kunis would be pretty good, but she’s a bit too small (short) to play her.
I guess if Jolies name is said in a sentence anywhere in the world, the media thinks its hot news.
“Angelina Jolie won’t play LC in the reboot: why is this a story?”
Because it’s Angelina Jolie.
interesting to see what she looks like pre nosejob.
I vote for Mila Kunis, she fits the role down to a tee!
i love these pics of her.
I miss her, too.
Minka Kelly can be the new LC.
I loved angelina back when she was freaky and badass
Why wouldn’t she? That’s the only kind of character she can play. I loved Gia & Girl Interrupted, but how long ago was that? Jolie=Tough girl action flix
Aniston=Romcom’s! NEXT
Vanessa Hudgens, have you seen her Sucker Punch stills? She could be a younger version of Jolie.
Didn’t the second movie massively underperform? I think she’s right not to even consider this mess, and I hope Mila is smart enough to stay away too. The whole concept seems dated, and not yet old enough for a reboot.
I think she looks a lot better in the face now (even with the vein) but her body was never that great.
Well, the video games got a reboot and a different story, makes sense that they’d want to do a reboot on the movies to draw more attention to the new games. Myabe a storyline tie in or something. They made Lara Croft 21 or something, wheras in the first games she was in her 30s, so makes sense that they’d want a younger Lara.
Mila Kunis played a younger character of Jolie in ‘Gia’ so if the studio is smart they can expand the franchise on that fact. That and Kunis is likable and can market well. Along with a few acting chops.
@LondonLady: I second that!
Noooooooooo please not Mila Kunis she is gorgeous, but her voice is so effing annoying.
love angie, regardless, she’s the bomb on so many levels.
i love her with more meat on her bones! she was way more sexy back then, now she’s still beautiful but looks emaciated.
It’s news because without her name it would not matter.
Seriously the film was 10 years ago. A lifetime in movie land.
It is just a story so that people can rag on her yet again.
move on
No Milla Kunis, no Megan Fox. they are both petite and don’t fit the role.
Lara Croft is an Amazone, so the actress should at least be 5’7″, especially since she has flat heels on (boots) most of the time.
I really can’t picture a 5’4″ tall actress or less being credible in fighting sequences involving a male when she has such a petite frame..
I adored her as Lara Croft. She’s one of the few women around who does action convincingly. She’s not that old now. She could do an older version Lara. This again just shows that Hollywood is obsessed with youth and often with almost prepubescent girls.
I want Mila Kunis too! She would be perfect for the part and she played young Jolie in Gia too!
Mila rocks at the book of Eli!
Don’t know why they’d do any more anyway. The games aren’t as popular as they once were and the other films, like other people have said, are barely ten years old.
It seems downright lazy to make another one.
I think that’s why they rebooted the games and are rebooting the movies. Gotta try to appeal to a younger generation.
I would watch it for Mila Kunis. But not for anybody else.
And I would actually want them to hire Olivia Wilde in the Lead role. And then see how she will suck and bomb. So tired of this overrated chick. She plays furniture in big films and then thinks she is a star. She is not.
Why was this story eve posted? For at least 5 years a lot of actresses were supposed to be the next Lara Croft.
I don’t get the comments that Angelina was so much heavier or had a massive amount of plastic surgery in the past 10 years. She doesn’t look much different. She’s always been thin. I don’t know why people keep looking at Lara Croft photos as proof she was a lot heavier.
Ugh Olivia Wilde. Please no, I don’t want to see her everywhere.
Does the world really need another Lara Croft movie?
Angelina is 35, she’s not old! For God’s sake!
I miss the old Angelina, too. She was the hottest thing back then, now she’s way too skinny and even frail looking. She needs to start joining Brad with the pot so she can get the munchies!
just reserve it when Shiloh grow up. i see no other girls filling the role.
olivia is ugh, kunis is huh and vanessa is arg!
Love strong, kick-ass female movies (Lara Craft, Charlie’s Angel’s, Salt, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, etc…). That being said, there is no Lara Craft movie without Angelina!
If they do a reboot I hope they use the stories from the more recent Lara Croft games. The games story lines are very deep and power, especially Tomb Raider: Underworld.
Would it be badass if Angie did Tomb Raider now? Hell Yes. So who knows this was film that exposed her to the world and led her to the person she is today, Ange might take a crack at it. *wishes hard*
No way in heck Mila. She’s too petite and a dwarf to boot. The only way she’d work is if the movie is campy a la Buffy, where she’d do goofy krotty and kungfoo moves and crack jokes every other kick.
I know women here like her, but seriously, it ain’t gonna be women who’s gonna watch Lara Croft movie; it sure wasn’t women who watched the last ones. It’s gonna be young guys and outside of a small rabid net fandom who worship the ground she walks, Mila is considered just not that hawt.
I’m not sure who should play her. Drawing blanks on statuesque young actresses right now. Actually, Adriana Palicki (who’s gonna play wonder woman on tv) would be a good fit. She is tall, curvy (by Hollywood standard), and was decent actingwise in Friday Night Lights
She’s a giant turn-off to me now. But I have to admit that I liked her back before she was a robot. I even liked her with Billy Bob. She was more “real” back then. She had an actual body, she talked openly about her problems in her life and in her childhood, she didn’t try to hide the fact that she had some mental instability, she wasn’t afraid to show her weaknesses, and she didn’t take herself too seriously (unless, of course, she was speaking about her problems). She was WAY more likeable and personable. You couldn’t help but like her, or at least feel for what she was going through. She tries too hard now to convince us that her life is blissfully perfect…she tries too hard to manipulate and control what’s being said about her…so you’ve got to figure the whole thing might be an epic disaster behind the scenes.
About the movie: Jolie DOES look/seem too old to play that role, even if she did want it. She’s only in her thirties, if I’m not mistaken, but she looks like she’s in her mid-forties. Her role in Salt was unbelievable. No person can beat up a crew of men when they can’t even hold a foot-long sub without breaking their own arm.
Newbie, and yet she can carry twins for 8-9 months. There is a saying it don’t take a big axe to cut down a big tree.
Guess your problem with her is that she have grown up, we all have to do it at sometime. She don’t have to convince you that she is happy, once she and her family are healthy and happy, your opinion means nothing.
Actually, this IS a story. It is a story about women and ageism in Hollywood. This is NOT a story about Angelina; it’s about more than Angelina rejecting the role; it’s about the fact that because she has rejected the role they are focusing on replacing her with somebody much younger rather than somebody her age.
The story is that because of Angelina’s star power, a Lara Croft sequel starring her would have featured a woman in her mid- thirties. Without her, it will feature a woman in her early twenties. The story is that they could have replaced Angelina with an actress her age, as they usually do with male action roles, but because of ageism, they won’t.
Meanwhile, male actors get to play action heroes well into their fifties. When they replaced men in the multiple Batman movies, they did not necessarily replace those men with somebody much younger than whomever had been in the previous role. George Clooney was older. When they replaced James Bond, they replaced him with a man in his mid-late thirties. Even the superman replacement is in his late 20s and will be nearly 30 when the film comes out.
Lara Croft – unlike Spiderman – does not need to be played by a very young actress; but because of ageism, they are casting the character that way.
If people would stop being so obsessed with Angelina as an individual, they would realize that this IS a story about women and age, not about her. Not everything is only about Angelina, and, ironically, she is the first person to say so.
Every story that involves Angelina is not ABOUT Angelina. Sometimes it’s about the rest of the world.
Why would a mature woman who is 35 today and has 6 kids would stay frozen in time with no evoluation whatsoever, acting irresponsible like she is still a childless child woman of 24 in love with a child man of 50, as if time and experiences we all go through in life hasn’t have an hold on her but on the rest of the individuals ?
Didn’t we all stopped raving stupidly about bad boys we used to like in high school ? Didn’t we all stop wearing diapers ? Didn’t Britney became more mature ? Didn’t former JLO boytoy Affleck turned out o be the staounchest advocate for Congo instead of just a pretty empty boy since he is a father ? Didn’t Nicole Richie evolved like the overwhelming humanbeings who evolve even more once they became parents ? That’s the natural evolution in most human being’s journey.
Not every woman is Madonna.
No every woman wants to be stuck in time and acting like she is still 20 years old, wild and fresh, unable to grow, unable to move on unable to mature, unable to act in par with her age as if her life natural rythm, changings, circumstances have zero effects on her.
Taking pleasure in living in an artificially maintained fake youth with zero evolution whatsoever is precisely unatural behaviour, acting robotic and trying too hard. Not the other way around..
Sounds like “Newbie” won’t accept the fact Angelina has GROWN-UP and matured. BTW Newbie,I have read the interviews you referred to in your asinine post.You do realize Angelina WAS NOT happy at that time in her life right? She has admitted so in several interviews. I still recall interviewers describing her as glum,sullen and unhappy 1998-2003. I do believe Angelina is happy in her life with Brad. And if you and the rest of the tabloids hags want to believe the worst….that’s your problem NOT Angelina’s. Pity, that certain people want a (35 year old) Mother of 6 running around acting like a wild (childless) woman of 24-25.
Does she still have that tat on her abdomen? I wonder what it looks like now after having the children..
@jessica, lol! what a thought. i’m pretty sure it might look the same as it always did…just divided by her c-section scars.
i still think Minka Kelly would be pretty cool for the LC role.
These pictures show the amount of work she has had done. Now she looks nothing like she did when she filmed Tomb Raider!
Why do celebs constantly lie about work done when there are so many pictures of them out there we can all see what has been done!
Like Katy Perry in her first video with small boobs but all of a sudden she has huge boobs? Plleeassee – why lie? i dont get it.
I said I liked her back then. That’s all. I didn’t say that I don’t appreciate people growing up or any of that craziness you posted. My point is that people have problems no matter what stage of life they’re in, and I really liked how she was more open/ok with that back in her Billy Bob days. She seems just as messed up mentally now as she ever was then. She just does more to hide it. I actually loved her Rolling Stone interview, back when people referred to her as nuts. It was honest. It made her seem real, human, and quite normal. It actually made me tear up in a few places. Not the part where she and Billy drank each other’s blood or anything, but she was really great otherwise.
@poppy: I see your point. Yet…I think it’s a little more taxing to beat up scores of armed men than it is to grow a bubble on a stick. Especially when that stick probably spent the majority of her third term in bed and being watched over by specialists. And I know what it’s like and how crazy it is to be pregnant. If you’re asking me if I marvel at her ability to even get pregnant…that I do. She’s very very underweight and un-healthy looking.
Make way for the young !
Get real.
When’s Angelina’s next movie due out?
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I had to bump this post! Ok the company that sold the rights to the Laura Croft property did the smartest thing any SMART company could have done. When Angela Jolie woke up that morning and decided she will step out of Laura Croft’s shoes she just by doing that Killed the Laura Croft character. Giving the character a real life face of someone like Angela Jolie built that brand! A lot of us could see Angela actually doing some of the things the character in the game doing. That kind of marketing is priceless which made the game seem amazing to most of us. Now this company GK wants to put a fictional face on a fictional character which is disgusting! I was always told 0+0=0 and that’s all the GK company bought! NOTHING! Them wanting a younger character is even more disgusting! Laura’s age with the game is also what made the game even more awesome! Angela was the only one on the face of the earth who can make a character out of the Laura Croft name! Without her there will never be a believable Laura Croft character. They should have killed the Laura character when she decided not to play Laura and came up with a new storyline, but instead out of no where her face change and shes younger!! That doesn’t work for me or the people who’s really into the game/movie series.