THE SUN SHINES
ON TR MOVIE
Copyright 2001 www.tombraiderchronicles.com
[ January 9th 2001 ]
This
from British tabloid newspaper The Sun...
Meet
the real life Lara Croft as the computer game
heroine hits the big screen for the first time.
Hollywood superstar Angelina Jolie puts flesh
on the sexy cyberbabe in Tomb Raider - which is
set to be one of the blockbuster movies of 2001.
Angelina, 25, had to go through a relentless training
programme to shape up as the curvaceous but muscular
Tomb Raider star. She learned boxing, kickboxing,
yoga, ballet, dog-sledding, gymnastics and weapons
training.
And she
spent three months practising bungee jumps to
perfect just one scene. It left her in peak condition
to perform her own stunts in the action-packed
movie. Angelina was determined to get the perfect
physique to play Lara Croft, the star of Eidos
Interactive's Tomb Raider video-game series which
has generated £300m in sales since 1996. The character
is an archaeologist, photojournalist and British
aristocrat, who travels the globe (in tight clothes
of course) having adventures. Angelina reveals
how she made her character come to life. She says:
"We decided she was human now and she wasn't perfect.
I gained weight and worked out and my shape changed.
"She's
a woman and she's curvy and cheeky and playful
and wicked. We didn't try to make her macho."
Angelina, daughter of Midnight Cowboy actor Jon
Voight - who plays her dad in Tomb Raider - admits
the role was her most physically demanding yet.
She said: "It's like joining the army. I almost
recommend to everyone sending themselves off to
some insane boot camp ,travelling the world and
taking themselves out of their normal life and
getting free." Stunt expert Simon Crane, who worked
on the film, said: "I would rate Angelina very
highly against all of the actors I have worked
with. She has done sequences that involve stunts
you won't have seen a woman do before. She does
all these stunts herself. I was very impressed."
Tomb
Raider was mostly shot in and around London and
at Pinewood Studios, Middlesex. But the film crew
also spent a week in the remote, war-torn country
of Cambodia, where they became a star attraction
with the locals. Buddhist monks making a pilgrimage
to the temple of Angkor Wat were surprised to
see a pretty young woman in unarmed combat with
masked villains, watched by a full-scale Hollywood
production team. Angelina, who is married to Armageddon
star Billy Bob Thorton, was looking exceptionally
fit in a jet black catsuit after months of riding
motorbikes, martial arts and working.
The sultry
actress could also been seen expertly power-sliding
her Land Rover through the mud and water for the
cameras. Tomb Raider is the first film to be shot
in Cambodia since Peter O'Toole played Lord Jim
in 1964, so the impact could be significant. Many
observers are predicting a dramatic increase in
the number of tourists visiting the area after
they have seen the movie - as happened in Thailand
where Leonardo DiCaprio filmed The Beach. Angelina,
however, is more nervous about the impact of her
performance as the sexiest woman who never existed.
She explains: "There are so many people who love
the game. She's their girl and you don't want
to take away the thing they love about her. You
hope you do justice to what everyone wanted. You
pray you've got it right..."
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