Cowboys and Aliens team bringing Lara Croft back to the big screen

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

It looks as if the reported TOMB RAIDER reboot is moving ahead as COWBOYS & ALIENS and IRON MAN writers Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby have signed on to write a Lara Croft based script. Producer Graham King (THE DEPARTED) made a deal for the rights from Eidos in March and is serious about launching a new franchise. But are Fergus and Ostby the right guys for the job?

They have some flashy credits on their resume including COWBOYS, IRON MAN and CHILDREN OF MEN but they’re not the sole-credited screenwriters on any of those projects. They’re sharing credits on COWBOYS with higher-profile writers like Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof and much was made of how Jon Favreau and Robert Downey, Jr. ripped up the script each day before shooting.

Of course the biggest part of a Lara Croft film is figuring out who will play Lara. We ran a CAST THIS column for TOMB RAIDER last year and the readers chose Rhona Mitra first and Olivia Wilde second. I’m not sure Mitra, who was an early model for Croft, is who they’re looking for but Wilde seems to be almost a perfect fit. She looks like Lara Croft, has some action chops and has even worked with Fergus and Ostby.

In addition to the movie reboot, Eidos is working on a game reboot that is set for release later this year and won’t have any continuity with the rest of the franchise.