Exclusive: Screenwriters update Tomb Raider reboot

A few weeks back, Iron Man and the upcoming Cowboys & Aliens screenwriters Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby were hired to reboot Tomb Raider (here), and Killer Film caught up with the two and asked them a little more about this possible franchise starter.

Killer Film: You spoke a lot about tone for Cowboys & Aliens, is that the similar approach you guys are applying to Tomb Raider?

Mark Fergus: Yeah, that’s the thing now days with projects like these. It has to be a thrill ride, with a strong character. We really love to write like that. Why does Iron Man work better than others? Because the adventure and romance were pushed in a different direction. So with Tomb Raider, we want to do that. We wanted to start fresh to see her character’s beginnings. I liked the games, I liked the movies, but we really wanted to give Lara Croft that Iron Man/Batman Begins treatment. It’s a good franchise, and we want to bring it to some new crazy place. She’s a cool movie character, and we just have to believe in her character and not wink at it, just play it straight.

Killer Film: Any need to distance yourselves from the two Jolie films (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life)?

Hawk Ostby: We obviously have a different origin than those films, but we liked them.

Mark Fergus: Those were really fun, but we want to make it epic and do it like the films we want to make. Lara is so bad-ass in that first movie. When Angelina Jolie walks out in the first frame of that movie, she is who she is. You never have to worry about her, she’s going to be okay. We want to take it back before that. Who was she before? Where she got that confidence?

Hawk Ostby: Someone isn’t born that way, they’re made. We going to get deep in character. It’s a great opportunty.

Source: Killer Film