For Hollywood, there has perhaps never been anything quite as elusive or more difficult to get right than a good video game adaptation, with most being just plain disappointing for fans of the original property, and others being generally considered much worse. Now, with Assassin's Creed having the potential to break the video game adaptation curse, the industry looks to take another shot at bringing one of the most iconic video game properties to life on the big screen in a reboot of Tomb Raider.
To its credit, the Tomb Raider reboot has already garnered some interesting potential over the past year, after not only recruiting foreign filmmaker Roar Uthaug as its director, but also bringing on Academy Award-winner Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft. If that wasn't exciting enough, the film recently added The Hateful Eight and Justified star Walton Goggins as its villain.
The actor, who's star power has been gradually increasing over the past several years, is generally considered to be one of the most talented character actors of his generation. Always managing to bring an added level of charisma to each of his roles, Goggins seems ready to bring the same enthusiasm to Tomb Raider as he has his previous work. And while recently speaking with Yahoo! Movies, the actor talked about why he chose to do the film, and the other iconic adventure films that the new reboot reminds him of:
“This director is an extraordinarily talented filmmaker, and Alicia Vikander I’ve met a few times, we have some friends in common, but I just think she’s one of the greatest contributions to any generation of actors, man. That for me was just a wonderful opportunity. But more importantly, the story is so good. It’s so good! I think I can say this: For me, it’s like Raiders of the Lost Ark meets a genre version of the Joseph Conrad novel Victory: An Island Tale. I just jumped at the chance.”
Goggins obviously isn't allowed to say or reveal much about the project or his role either, though the actor seemed eager to stress the character's depth and a surprising level of dimension in the film, saying he's not just a stock villain, but he comes with understandable motivations that may shock some viewers:
“Is he a villain? Sure, that is an easy description. An antagonist, for sure. But [like other characters] I have been so lucky to have the opportunity to play over the course of my career, there are real reasons behind his antagonism, and it’s not what you’d expect. He is very complicated, and his motivations are pure.”
Coming off of her recent Oscar win for her work in The Danish Girl, Vikander is an exciting choice to play Lara Croft, especially following Angelina Jolie's turn as the character in her own Tomb Raider films from the early 2000s. Like most other video game adaptations that have hit Hollywood, both of the previous attempts at Tomb Raider films were generally considered major misses, and with the new reboot, it seems as though Warner Bros. is trying to avoid the previous films' mistakes, casting strong character actors like Vikander and Goggins as its leads, rather than movie stars like Jolie.
Now, it's impossible to know if Tomb Raider will actually succeed, and this wouldn't be the first time that a project has had a considerable amount of talent involved but still managed to fall short of expectations. If assembling an impressive, exciting creative team -- both in front of the camera and behind it -- is the best that fans can hope for, then Tomb Raider is in exceptional shape right now.
Source: Yahoo! Movies
