Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

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Template:Infobox Film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (or just Tomb Raider) is a movie based on the popular Tomb Raider series featuring the character Lara Croft. It was released during the summer of 2001. Lara in the screen role was not portrayed as a CGI character, but was played by actress Angelina Jolie.

Portions of the film were shot on location at Angkor, Cambodia.

During the summer of 2003, the sequel, Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, made its way into theatres across the United States and other countries around the world.

Tagline: Who is Lara Croft?

Contents

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Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

A member of a rich British aristocratic family, Lara Croft is a tomb raider who enjoys collecting ancient artifacts from ruins of temples, cities, etc. worldwide, and doesn't mind going through death-defying dangers to get them. She is skilled in hand-to-hand combat, weapons training, and foreign languages - and does them all in tight outfits.

The planets of the solar system are going into astronomical conjunction (which occurs every 5,000 years), and a secret society called the Illuminati is seeking an ancient talisman called The Triangle of Light that gives its possessor the ability to control time. The exact date when the movie is set is not given (although the 'first phase of the conjunctions' (sic) occurs on May 15), the plot perhaps is inspired from the real-life alignment that actually happened on May 5 2000.

The Illuminati need a certain clock/key called the All-Seeing Eye to help them in their search, and they have to find it in one week or wait for the next planetary alignment to find it again which will be in another 5,000 years. Lara happens to find the All-seeing Eye hidden in a wall of her mansion. The Illuminati steal it, and Lara gets an old letter from Lord Richard Croft, her deceased father, telling her about the society's agenda (her father was a defected member of the society who hid the key). Now, she must retrieve the key and find and destroy the talisman before the Illumanti can get their hands on it. Note: She eventually obtains The Triangle of Light and uses it to communicate with her father.

There are at least two references to the second game of the series, like the dagger of Xi'an which is auctioned. On the other hand, the plot presents some deviations from the games and the comics: while the comic-book Lara lost her parents in a plane crash, from where she was the only survivor, in the movie her mother died while she was little, while her father Richard (instead of Henshingly) died in 1985 'in the Field'. Also, her butler is the young Hilary, instead of the old Winston, appearing in the games (in the comics he is called Jives).

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Main cast

Image:Angelina Jolie Tomb Raider.bmp

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Financing

  • Tele-München Gruppe: TMG is a German tax shelter. The tax law of Germany allows investors to take an instant tax deduction even on non-German productions and even if the film has not gone into production. By selling them the copyright for $94 million and then buying it back for $83.8 million, Paramount made $10.2 million.
  • Lombard Bank: The copyright was sold again to this British investment group and a further $12 million was made. However to qualify for Section 48 tax relief, the production must include some UK filming and British actors.
  • Presales to distrubtors in Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain made a further $65 million.
  • Showtime: $6.8 million for premium cable TV rights. (Showtime is a subsidiary of Paramount's parent company Viacom).

Total: $94 million.

Source: Slate: How to finance a Hollywood blockbuster

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Trivia

  • The casting of Jolie was controversial among many fans of the Tomb Raider series, who felt she was physically inappropriate to play the large-breasted heroine; others complained about an American actress being hired to play a British character. Prior to Jolie being cast in the role, numerous other actresses (and non-actresses) were rumored to be in consideration, most notably Demi Moore. UK nude model Linsey Dawn McKenzie was also rumored by some media to be in the running for the part.
  • The studio behind the videogame that the movie is licensed from, made a huge error in agreeing a deal [1] with Paramount Pictures. In that they didn't receive royalities from the movie's colossal box office takings.
  • Jolie wore a padded bra during filming in order to approximate Lara Croft's physical dimensions (Jolie is a 36C; Croft is a 36D); this was abandoned for the second movie.
  • Lara Croft's father, Richard Croft, is played by Jolie's real-life father, Jon Voight. Note that Croft's canonical name is Henshingly, not Richard.
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External links

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