Why The Original Tomb Raider Director Had Trouble Casting Angelina Jolie
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- Published on Wednesday, 14 March 2018 06:51
- Written by Cinema blend
Tomb Raider is only days away from returning to the big screen, this time with Alicia Vikander playing Lara Croft. Vikander inherited the role from Angelia Jolie, who first brought the character to life in 2001's Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and reprised the skilled archaeologist in 2003's Lara Croft: Tomb Raider -- The Cradle of Life. At the time, Jolie had made a name for herself through movies like Hackers, Girl, Interrupted and Gone in 60 Seconds, but when she auditioned for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, director Simon West had trouble convincing others that she was the right woman for the job due to her unique personality. West recalled: [She] had a great, dark reputation about her. She lived quite an alternative lifestyle and didn't hold back her words. She spoke her mind, and she had a notorious reputation. It was quite hard for me to get her through the approval process at the studio, because I wanted an actress who was going to bring something to the part, and she brought this great Angelina Jolie mythology with her as this dark, crazy, wicked woman with a very particular and interesting personality. I wanted that mythology of Angelina Jolie to fuse with Lara Croft.While Angelina Jolie is still a household Hollywood name, like many other actors, there was a time when she wasn't famous, so she faced an uphill battle scoring the Lara Croft role. As Simon West explained to EW, at the time Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was casting, there hadn't been an actress who'd carried her own action-adventure movie in a while, so Paramount Pictures was initially looking at more established performers. Some of the names thrown out by the studio included Catherine Zeta-Jones, Ashley Judd and Jennifer Lopez, but West only saw Jolie for the Lara Croft part. It undoubtedly helped that Jolie had won an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for her turn as Lisa Rowe in Girl, Interrupted, and but when combined with her natural personality, West knew Jolie was up to the task and subsequently altered Lara Croft and the movie's script to suit the actress' strengths.
While Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was met with mostly negative reviews (it ranks at 19% on Rotten Tomatoes), it performed decently at the box office, making over $274 million worldwide. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider -- The Cradle of Life's critical reception was a little better than its predecessor, and it made over $156 million worldwide, but when Angelina Jolie announced that she wouldn't play Lara Croft again, a second sequel was scrapped. More than a decade later, Tomb Raider is now being rebooted, and in contrast with the previous movies, this new entry will serve as an origin story for Alicia Vikander's Lara Croft.Angelina Jolie's time as Lara Croft has long since concluded, but you can see what Alicia Vikander does with the character when the Tomb Raider reboot hits theaters this Friday, March 16. To learn what else will be released this year, head to our 2018 premiere guide.
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Neil Burger, Angelina Jolie Teaming for Biopic about Major Mary Jennings Hegar
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- Published on Saturday, 03 March 2018 13:29
- Written by Traciking Board
Director Neil Burger (Divergent) is going to direct an untitled film based on the 2017 memoir SHOOT LIKE A GIRL, written by Purple Heart veteran Major Mary Jennings Hegar, and no less than Angelina Jolie is looking to play the military hero.514QzAwRLPLProduced by the Gotham Group, the current draft of the screenplay was co-written by Alice O’Neill with Burger over previous versions by Frank Baldwin and Jason Hall.Hegar earned the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross after doing three tours of duty in Afghanistan as a rescue pilot, searching and rescuing hundreds of men and women from the battlefield. She also fought against the Department of Defense’s exclusion of women from combat duty calling it unconstitutional.Nicole Brown brought Hegar’s memoir Shoot Like a Girl: One Woman’s Dramatic Fight in Afghanistan and on the Home Front to the Gotham Group, and she will oversee the project with Hannah Minghella.This sounds like a great project and role for Jolie, if she chooses to come on board, because Hegar is an amazing hero that could give Jolie the proper impetus to give another Oscar-winning performance. Jolie won the Oscar for her early role in James Mangold’s Girl, Interrupted in 2000, then was nominated a second time for Clint Eastwood’s The Changeling. She was also awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award a few years back. In recent years, Jolie has gone behind the camera to direct a number of films including the film First They Killed My Father.O’Neill and Burger previously collaborated on the Showtime series Billions, on which O’Neill is a story editor and Burger is exec. producer on the show after directing the first two episodes. They also co-wrote the screenplay Tara Delaney, which Burger also intends to direct.Most recently, Burger directed the Kevin Hart-Bryan Cranston comedy The Upside, which is a remake of the hit French film The Intouchables. The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and was going to be released by the Weinstein Company next month, but the film is now caught up in the bankruptcy faced by the company following the assault charges leveled against founder Harvey Weinstein.Other films in Burger’s filmography include the acclaimed The Illusionist, starring Edward Norton, and the Bradley Cooper sci-fi drama Limitless, which led to the CBS drama of the same name. More importantly, Burger directed the military drama The Lucky Ones, starring Tim Robbins, Rachel McAdams and Michael Peña in 2008, which is more in line with what is needed for the Hegar story. Burger is represented by CAA and Anonymous Content.Repped by ICM Partners and the Gotham Group, O’Neill also wrote the Black List script Buttercup.This project was initially reported on by Variety.
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Angelina Jolie will receive American Society Of Cinematographers Governors Awards... as her film First They Killed My Father gets Oscar buzz
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- Published on Thursday, 18 January 2018 04:37
- Written by Daily Mail
Angelina Jolie will receive the Governors Awards from the The American Society of Cinematographers will present.The Oscar winner, who is in the process of divorcing Brad Pitt, is following in the footsteps of past recipients Julia Roberts and Sally Field as well as Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Spielberg.The 2018 ASC Board of Governors Award will be presented on February 17 at Hollywood & Highland’s Ray Dolby Ballroom.Her film First They Killed My Father is Cambodia’s Oscar entry and has already received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations this awards season. She directed the Netflix project.The Board of Governors Award — the only non-cinematographer honor handed out by the group — is given to individuals whose body of work has made significant and indelible contributions to cinema.It's also for filmmakers who have been champions for directors of photography and the visual art form.'Angelina Jolie sets a high standard,' ASC president Kees van Oostrum said in announcing the award on Wednesday.'She is a true artist, with a strong vision and collaborative spirit.'She has also entertained us through her work, but more importantly has brought significant social issues to our attention. For her wide-ranging accomplishments, we are honored to present her with our Board of Governors Award.'Other previous recipients of the honor include Ridley Scott, Barbra Streisand, Harrison Ford, Christopher Nolan, Warren Beatty, Morgan Freeman, Ron Howard, Sydney Pollack and Martin Scorsese.
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'Stuck in the Middle' Actress Joins Angelina Jolie in 'The One and Only Ivan'
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- Published on Thursday, 11 January 2018 04:55
- Written by Hollywood Reporter
Ariana Greenblatt will play one of the human leads in the live-action/CG hybrid.Ariana Greenblatt, who appears on Disney Channel’s Stuck in the Middle, has joined the cast of The One and Only Ivan, Disney's adaptation of the Newbery Medal-winning book written by Katherine Applegate.Angelina Jolie is producing the live-action/CG hybrid as well as voicing one of the lead characters. Allison Shearmur and Brigham Taylor are also producing.Published by HarperCollins in 2011, the book centers on a silverback gorilla named Ivan who lives in a cage in a shopping mall along with an elephant named Stella (Jolie) and a stray dog called Bob. Ivan does not remember life before the mall, but when a baby elephant named Ruby enters and Ivan finds himself taking care of her, he begins to rediscover his previous life and concocts a plan to take the baby elephant away from their abusive owner.Greenblatt will play one of the human leads who make up the live-action portion of the project.Brooklynn Prince, the breakout lead of acclaimed indie drama The Florida Project, is already cast as the voice of Ruby.Thea Sharrock, director of the tearjerker Me Before You, is helming Ivan, which has a script by Mike White.Greenblatt has been appearing on Middle since the series began in 2016. The show is now in its third season. The youngster made her feature debut in last year’s STX comedy, A Bad Moms Christmas.She is repped by Paradigm, Untitled Entertainment and Schreck Rose.
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Maleficent 2 Sets Spring Filming Start Date
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- Published on Saturday, 05 May 2018 16:19
- Written by Screenrant
Maleficent 2 has set an April filming start date, with Angelina Jolie returning as the movie’s namesake. It was previously reported that the Maleficent sequel could begin production by the first quarter of the new year, so the project appears to be moving along as expected.It wasn’t previously clear when (and, to a degree, if) Jolie would be reprising her role as the Disney ex-villain Maleficent on the big screen. Jolie reportedly spent a significant chunk of last year debating whether or not to work on the Dark Universe’s Bride of Frankenstein reboot before or after returning for Maleficent 2. However, following the troubled production and lukewarm reception of Tom Cruise’s The Mummy, the Dark Universe has seemingly fallen apart and Jolie is now free to start filming the Maleficent sequel in London in a few months.Omega Underground is reporting that Maleficent 2 has already entered pre-production and is scheduled to start filming April 16th. Production will take place in London, with Marco Polo and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales co-director Joachim Rønning at the helm. Patrick Tatopoulous (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) has been added to the crew as production designer. The project is expected to complete principal photography in about four months, around the time that August rolls around.Jolie initially credited her return to the film, and acting in general, was due to her newfound role as the “breadwinner” of the family after her separation from husband, Brad Pitt. All joking aside, Jolie has expressed great excitement for the script written by Linda Woolverton (who also penned the first Maleficent) and Spectre cowriter Jez Butterworth, promising Maleficent 2 will be a “really strong sequel.” 2013’s Oz The Great And Powerful kicked off a trend of live-action fantasy films exploring the viewpoint of the villain in a new light. In the film, Mila Kunis’s character is destined to become the Wicked Witch of the West after suffering heartbreak and betrayal. Maleficent really brought the trope to prominence with Jolie’s masterful portrayal of the titular character. The film portrayed Sleeping Beauty‘s Maleficent as an innocent woman taken advantage of by those around her, resulting in the forceful loss of her wings (insert fallen angel symbolism here), and propelling her to become the ultimate villain. The unique spin on of Disney’s most well-known villains garnered a mixed to positive critical reception, and the film grossed $758 million worldwide.
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