With Angelina Jolie set to reprise the role of Lara Croft in Paramount’s Tomb Raider 2, casting has also been nailed for some of the film’s other stars — the visual effects. Cinesite (Europe) Ltd. has been awarded a major portion of the wizardry for next summer’s action/adventure thrill ride to be directed by Jan de Bont (Twister, The Haunting—1999).
Since August, Cinesite’s digital effects team has been developing pre-visualization and working alongside the production at Pinewood Studios, London. The effects house’s European team will be working with Visual Effects Supervisor Steve Begg, who also supervised Cinesite’s effects work on the previous Tomb Raider film. Supervising digital effects for Cinesite is Mike Talarico, whose previous work includes Mission to Mars, Inspector Gadget and Armageddon.
While Cinesite Hollywood is gearing up for X-Men 2, Cinesite Europe is completing extensive computer animation and effects for the next Bond installment and is busy on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and the Shanghai Noon sequel, Shanghai Knights, starring Jacky Chan and Owen Wilson.
