The rights to the Tomb Raider series with the most recent of which starred Alicia Vikander in 2018 and was produced by MGM, are no longer in their possession. Graham King’s GK Films is now shopping the rights and looking for a replacement actress because the actress is no longer committed to a forthcoming sequel.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, directed by Roar Uthaug, was released by Paramount in 2001. Two years later, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life followed Vikander played Lara in the remake, which Warner Bros distributed and which brought in $274.7 million at the global box office.
A sequel to that film has been in the works since 2019, with Vikander expected to reprise her role. Ben Wheatley and, more recently, Misha Green (Lovecraft Country) have been connected to direct, the latter as recently as last year. MGM even planned a March 2021 release date, right in the heart of the Covid epidemic.
Square Enix Ltd. sold King the cinematic rights to the original video game franchise in 2011. After its initial release in 1996, the action-adventure game became a great success, generating many sequel games and, eventually, the Jolie-starring film adaptations.
Since being purchased by Amazon in an $8.5 billion transaction in May, MGM has been recalibrating.
