Lara Croft: Tomb Raider redux

[MacGuffin]

Lara Croft to return to the big screen
Warners, Dan Lin in early development on reboot
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Lara Croft could soon be going on a new big-screen mission.

Warners Bros. and producer Dan Lin are in early development on a a reboot of "Tomb Raider," the popular video game action franchise.

"Tomb Raider," which was published in 1996 by a London-based video game company called Eidos, was a wildly popular game that involved the daredevil archaeologist Lara Croft on a series of global missions. Several spinoff games have been published since, with a 10th-anniversary edition of the game released in 2006.

Paramount previously made the two movies based on the game, but the rights have since reverted to Eidos. When Time Warner upped its stake to 19.92% in Eidos in December, films rights to the property were included as part of the deal.

Lin will produce the project via his Lin Pictures banner while Stephen Gilchrist will co-produce; Ian Livingstone of Eidos will exec produce. Matt Reilly is overseeing for Warners. Lin is the producer behind Warners' upcoming Guy Ritchie-directed update of "Sherlock Holmes" and the adventure film "Jonny Quest."

The new project, however, is expected to revamp the character and her mission and bear little resemblance to the original pictures. It will reimagine the origins of the character, her love interest and the main villain.

As an open-writing assignment, the project is still in its nascent stages. An actress who could play the role Angelina Jolie made famous would likely come on after a writer and director are attached.

Jolie, of course, starred in the first two installments, "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" and "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life."

The first pic, which came out in 2001, grossed a whopping $275 million worldwide, while the 2003 follow-up earned a more modest $157 million.

The first pic concerned Croft's race against a secret society known as the Illuminati to find a key, while the second centered on her quest to find "Pandora's Box."