It was a big night for Star Wars: The Force Awakens last night at the Empire Awards, where the film, as well as stars John Boyega and Daisy Ridley, took a small trove of awards, alongside Matt Damon, who took home the best actor award for his work in The Martian. Talk as of recently has been about Rian Johnson's sequel to The Force Awakens, which is a few weeks into shooting now and is just starting to make a buzz in terms of what the story proper will involve, but last night, there was another film that was being discussed by both Boyega and Ridley.
As both THR and Variety noted this morning, Ridley confirmed that there have been "conversations" about her taking the lead role in the proposed rebooting of the Tomb Raider film franchise. Though talk of the reboot has been popping up a lot as of recently, the film has yet to secure a director or a writer to build whatever the new narrative would be, but Ridley's name would certainly make the property all the more tantalizing. “I’m waiting for someone to say ‘I want you, let’s do it',” said Ridley at the awards last night, so she's clearly game for the project. She added that her role in Johnson's Star Wars Episode VIII would not conflict with her purposed casting in a Tomb Raider film, and that she's looking to fill up her calendar with work.
This is familiar to the way that Jennifer Lawrence took the lead in The Hunger Games franchise as well as securing her spot in the new run of X-Men films at once, which means that from now on, short of some major mistakes and flops, she can call her own shots as to what films she wants to do. This has paid off in spades with her galvanic work with David O. Russell, and she's already lined up work with Steven Spielberg and Darren Aronofsky in the coming years. If this is a sign that Ridley's work in Star Wars and a possible Tomb Raider reboot would pave the way for the hugely talented actress to work with major directors on more daring material, I'm all for it, but the first two Tomb Raider films left a sour taste even for devoted fans of the video game it's based on. There's always a chance that a reboot would act as a corrective to those Angelina Jolie-led films, but it's a risky proposition for an actress who has several options following her heralded breakthrough in The Force Awakens.
