WEST AND JOLIE
TALK TOMB RAIDER
Copyright 2001 www.tombraiderchronicles.com Source:
Entertainment Weekly
[ April 21st 2001 ]
With
less than sixty days until the U.S. premier of
Paramount Pictures Tomb Raider movie, public interest
spawned from the increasing hype generated by
media carriers and an instrumental advertising
strategy orchestrated by major corporations has
reached new levels of frenzied excitement, and
this latest score from Entertainment Weekly fuels
the fire...
"She's
a young woman who leads a very privileged life
and does some amazing things, but is completely
out of her mind in a really wicked way," says
Jolie, describing her latest role. "She's probably
the closest to my personality [of] any character
I've ever played." Except that the Oscar-winning
actress doesn't sidestep to the left and draw
a weapon when you press Control-Delete-Space Bar-but
never mind. Casting the ever-intriguing Jolie
as adventurer Lara Croft in the big-screen adaptation
of the popular videogame has already set Lara
Croft- Tomb Raider apart from previous doomed
attempts at transplanting cyberheroes onto film
(see Super Mario Brothers, Double Dragon, and
Wing Commander, if you must). "The studio gave
us a list of everybody's top five actresses-the
usual names-but I couldn't think of anybody but
Angelina," says West (Con Air). "Just by rating
her, we let the world know this movie has a different
attitude."
It'll
certainly have a different look, with the reportedly
nearly $100 million production giving Croft a
stylish new mien. "Think of it as a Merchant Ivory
film with a motorcycle crashing through the set,"
suggests production designer Kirk Petruccelli.
Even Lara's outfits have been updated- although
they will remain as skintight as ever. "It's more
Prada and modem and minimalist," reports costume
designer Lindy Hemming. "And Angelina doesn't
like color, so there's a lot of blacks and grays."
As for the plot, it's being kept under wraps (which
means you can probably download the script from
the Internet). Suffice it to say that it'll involve
a father-daughter reunion (Jolie's dad, Voight,
will play her on-screen pop), a trip to Cambodia's
Temple of Angkor Wat (one of the rare times the
ancient Buddhist monument has been filmed by Westerners),
and loads of special effects.
"Angelina
does most of her own stunts," says West. "I just
throw everything at her-her own driving, the acrobatic
stuff, the boat stuff-and she loves it. The problem
is reminding her that she's not indestructible.
She's convinced she is Lara Croft." Now, if only
she can convince the rest of us...
Tomb
Raider will debut June 15th across the United
States, coming to European shores July 6th.
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