Here a world famous video game heroine bursts onto the big screen in this adaptation with Angelina Jolie in the lead role as Lady Lara Croft. Whilst there was a sequel the film was nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award and the worst actress nomination. Despite that 'achievement' per se the film gave Paramount its second-best debut and fourth-highest debut for 2001. It would appear however that Angelina Jolie took the role very seriously. It took her months to train prior to the shoot given the weight of the guns she would need to handle and the acrobatics necessary to portray the video game heroine. She even leant the bungy ballet routine so the production did not need to use a double which also took her months to master. A big challenge faced by the production team when they cast Angelina Jolie were the number of tatoos she had which needed to be airbrushed away particularly for one scene in the shower! The story sees adventurer and tomb raider, Lara Croft setting off in search of the Triangle of Light, a legendary artifact with the power to alter space and time. As the story unfolds Lara will learn of a secret held by her dead father, Lord Richard Croft (Jon Voight, Angelina Jolie's real father).
Release / Airing: 06/07/2001
Locations used for this production:
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Elveden Hall >
Lara goes to see Powell. Mr Pimms (Julian Rhind-Tutt), his assistant, takes her into Powell's ornately stone carved living room. The interiors at Elveden Hall were a perfect choice to illustrate the opulence and decadence that West wanted to depict as Powell's lifestyle. Lara shows him pictures of the key to see if he can help identify the artefact. Whilst he says he cannot help it is clear his interest is stirred. The production team had the key made by a clock maker which took many weeks to construct. There were four made in total all in full working order but each one doing something slightly different.
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Hatfield House >
The stunning exterior of Hatfield House appears many times during the film as Lara's family home. A key scene involving the House is the anniversary of her father's disappearance. Lara descends the exterior steps of the House to the memorial stone she has had erected to her father in the garden. The Director, Simon West took the idea for the stone when he visited the memorial to Sir Richard Burton, the man who had discovered the River Nile as he thought it appropriate given the fictitious Richard Croft had been an adventurer. A later scene shoes Lara, having found an artefact inside a clock long since hidden by her father, leaving home by motorbike with the back of the House as a backdrop. Later that day she returns having visited with Wilson to see if he can help identify the artefact; he suggests she approach Manfred Powell (Iain Glen). Having seen Powell and shown him pictures of what she refers to as the key, Lara returns home and is doing bungy ballet in the house to relax when a troop of raiders approach under cover of darkness, pass Bryce's (Noah Taylor) caravan in the garden and break in. The following day a deliveryman arrives and partially enters the Armoury Room at Hatfield House with a letter for Lara. This was the only interior shot in Hatfield House itself. Other interior scenes with her at home were shot on a magnificent set created at Pinewood Studios (UK). In the final scene with Hatfield House as a backdrop, Lara once again visits her father's memorial and then returns to the house.
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