TOMB RAIDER Reboot Gets a Director

A reboot of Tomb Raider has been in the works for a long time, and now THR reports that MGM and Warner Bros. have finally found someone to direct it. Roar Uthaug, who directed the Norwegian disaster film The Wave, has been hired to bring the story of Lara Croft to the big screen.

This film won't be a continuation of the two previous Angelina Jolie-starring films, and will instead take a page from the recent video game reboot and go back to explore the origins of Lara Croft. Evan Daugherty, Marti Noxon, and the writing team of Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby have worked on earlier versions of the script, but Transformers 5 co-writer Geneva Robertson-Dworet is now in discussions to write the screenplay. It's unclear whether she'll start from scratch or work from those earlier drafts.

It looks like the producers have either chosen to go away from their original idea to have a female director for this project, or those earlier rumors were never true to begin with. Like most American filmgoers, I'm not familiar with Uthaug's work, but I've heard good things about The Wave and I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of style he brings to this adventure story. No word yet on casting (I remember a rumor that Megan Fox was once wanted for the part, but that was back in 2009), but we'll keep you posted as soon as we hear anything.