While speaking with Collider to promote her upcoming romantic drama, The Light Between Oceans, Alicia Vikander also fielded a few questions about the status of the Tom Raider reboot. The first question Vikander addressed was whether she was apprehensive or excited about headlining her first action blockbuster after bursting on the scene with Ex Machina (2015), which led to supporting roles in Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015) and Jason Bourne (2015).
Said Vikander, " I think it’s – you know, with these big films – you just want to just – for me it’s really all about the filmmaker, and then of course the character and the story. I find that — big blockbuster movies, I grew up with, and some of them I love, and I think the thrill of being part of making one myself would be extraordinary. But it also comes down to, I met Roar [Uthaug] and I’d seen The Wave and a few of his other Norwegian films and it’s with the kind of chance to make this story now, based on the rebooted game which is more of an origin story. You could intervene hopefully a great story and a great arc and then within that, have a very entertaining adventure film, which I loved those growing up. And I played the game when I was a kid [laughs]. Anyways, it was a really the real first protagonist I had seen in a video game at that point. And of course Angelina Jolie made her into an icon. So it’s cool to try to step into the shoes and we’re hoping to make something that will hopefully will be fresh and new."
Vikander went on to talk about her love for the original Tomb Raider game that she played as a kid but admitted that she hadn't played the new, reboot from Crystal Dynamics when she was first approached about the project. "I hadn’t played the new rebooted game when I met – and now I have and now it’s quite different. They kind of rebooted the game and it visually looks quite different and it’s like I said, it’s more of an origin story. You’re following this girl who, on her way to becoming what we all know her for, Tomb Raider, Lara Croft."
As far as when cameras will actually start rolling on the reboot, Vikander seemed a little unsure due to her busy schedule but suggested that the production would begin filming before the end of the year. "Well I know they released the release date a few weeks ago. But I’m wrapping up [The Light Between Oceans press tour] in three days, I have to finish a film with Wim Wenders (Submergence) and I’m starting on this film I’ve been developing for two years (Euphoria) in August. So it’s going to be off of that. So I think it’s going to be later, by the end of this year."
Roar Uthaug is directing the Tomb Raider reboot from a script written by Geneva Robertson-Dworet. The MGM and Warner Bros. collaboration currently has a release date of March 16, 2018.