E3 ABSENCE FOR LARA CROFT...?
Copyright 2001 www.tombraiderchronicles.com Source: Stomped

[ April 20th 2001 ]

According to a report on Stomped, the future of Core Designs Next Generation Lara Croft could well remain a mystery as speculation suggests her absence at this years U.S. E3 trade show.

It has become a true tradition at E3. Along with the media breakfast and the keynote speech, attendees could count on Eidos and Core Design introducing a new model to represent their trademark character Lara Croft at their booth. Hundreds of E3 attendees crowded around the stage whenever the new Lara Croft model appeared. Since E3 1997, Eidos has hired a model to portray Lara Croft at E3 and then have that model represent that character all over the world. Some models have used the job as a stepping stone for other things. Rhona Mitra became a successful actress in films and is now a regular on the TV show Gideon's Crossing. Another Lara Croft model, Nell McAndrew, took another route and posed nude for Playboy soon after her Lara Croft gig came to an end. Now it seems the tradition has been stopped, at least for this year. Stomped has learned that Eidos will NOT have a new Lara Croft model at this year's E3.

According to what a representative of Eidos told Stomped today, one reason is that since there are no plans to have a new Tomb Raider game released this year, there is not much point in having a new model to promote it. A bigger reason, however, is the upcoming big budget Tomb Raider film starring Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie. The Eidos representative told Stomped that they did not want to confuse the public by introducing a new Lara model just before the film comes out. As far as Eidos's plans for E3 itself, the publisher is staying mum for the moment. However, the representative did say that, even though E3 takes place less than a month before the Tomb Raider movie hits theaters, they had no plans to promote the movie at the expo.