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TV Times

Lara Croft Adventure in Colombo again
By Sanath Weerasuriya
‘Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life”, the latest film packed with action featuring Angelina Jolie as ‘Lara Croft will hit Colombo from Friday, the October 17.
‘Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life,’ directed by Jan de Bont will be screen at the Liberty Cinema.

Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie reprises her role as Lara Croft, one of the word’s most celebrated action heroines ever, who performs her own stunts, to hit the big screen. Facing her greatest challenges yet, the intrepid tomb raider travels the world on a spectacular adventure that takes her to such exotic places as Hong Kong, Kenya, Tanzania, Greece and the Great Wall of China.

Demonstrating her physical prowess and revealing her courage as never before, Lara proves that she will stop at nothing in her search for an infamous site known as “The Cradle of Life”... especially when it means she could save the world from the most unspeakable evil ever known.

The first “Tomb Raider” movie was a massive blockbuster at $47.7 million in the opening weekend, the biggest opening ever for a film with a female star. The film went on to gross nearly $300 million worldwide. Now, with ‘’Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life”, the bar is set even higher for the brave female adventurer, and the thrilling quest she is on is one audiences will never forget.
The film also features Gerard Butler, Noah Taylor, Ciaran Hinds, Djimon Honunsou, Till Schwiger and Christopher Barrie.

The story revolves around ancient Greek myth ‘Pandora’s Box’. Pandora’s Box, said to house the most unspeakable evil ever known, is hidden on the continent of Africa in an area known as “The Cradle of Life”. Now, it is up to world renowned tomb raider Lara Croft (Angolan) to find the infamous box before it falls into the hands of the maniacal Nobel Prize-winning scientist Dr. Jonathan Reissue (Cairn Hinds). Intent on harnessing the evil power, Reissue must be stopped at all costs.

It is only Lair Craft who stands between preserving life as we know it or allowing the malevolent Reissue to achieve his ultimate goal... world domination.
The curtain raiser for the film took place on the paradise island of Santorini, in Greece. Colonized by the minoans in 3000 B.C., the volcanic island erupted in 1450 B.C., forming Santorini’s crescent shape.

In fact, the island is widely believed to be a candidate for the lost kingdom of Atlantis, making it that much more an appropriate place to film a Lara Croft adventure. Named Thira by the Dorians when they settled in the eighth century B.C., Santorini is a favored holiday destination, a stunning island of white villages clinging to volcanic cliffs above black sand beaches.

Black in the UK, the production crew prepared for their second location, at the principality of Wales, where scenes would be filmed in the mountains of Snowdonia. Though the location in North Wales sported sophisticated facilities, unfortunately cell phones frequently hit dead zones, making communication during filming that much more difficult.

For the purpose of “The Cradle of Life”, Wales doubled as China, and the construction team built a wonderfully convincing Chinese village by a picturesque lake, with a traditional water mill for an authentic Asian feel. Extras for scenes shot here were culled from the local Chinese populations as far afield as Liverpool.

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