2018’s Tomb Raider reboot performed respectively at the box office, and got modest reviews. While it might not have been the slam-dunk franchise starter Warner Bros. was hoping for, it was still a promising enough start to get a sequel. However the studio has gone in an interesting direction with their choice of director.
Ben Wheatley is on board to direct the sequel. Yes, the director of the psychedelically strange A Field In England, the evil Kill List, and the blackly comic Sightseers is helming a big action blockbuster. This should be interesting.
Back in April it was reported that Wheatley’s frequent collaborator Amy Jump was writing the Tomb Raider 2 screenplay. Her involvement seems to have been enough to get Wheatley interested, and convince WB he’s a good choice to helm the next chapter of the adventure saga.
Wheatley has experience with action films in the form of Free Fire, but that was nowhere near the budget of this. Him directing Alicia Vikander could be enough to make this latest Tomb Raider instalment a great one. The first film was helmed by Roar Uthaug, and unfortunately his lack of style meant the film was pretty much instantly forgettable.
Whatever Wheatley does with this sequel, it will be memorable. So that itself is something.
This is the latest more mainstream project Wheatley has got involved in. He’s currently in post-production on a new adaptation of Rebecca, most famously a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. That isn’t exactly a $500 million box office movie, but it’s certainly more mainstream than something like A Field In England.
There’s never been a great Tomb Raider movie. Wheatley has every chance to change that. Hopefully the studio doesn’t push all the creativity out of the project. The Tomb Raider sequel arrives March 19, 2021.
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