Allen Maldonado Joins Netflix & Legendary’s “Tomb Raider” Anime Series

Allen Maldonado is ready to raid tombs…

The 38-year-old half-Puerto Rican actor and filmmaker has joined the voice cast of of Netflix and Legendary’s Tomb Raider anime series alongside Shadow of the Tomb Raider video game franchise alum Earl Baylon.

Allen Maldonado

The project is based on the Square Enix action-adventure video game that has spawned comic books and three feature films, with a fourth on the way.

Maldonado and Baylon join previously announced Hayley Atwell, who voices iconic adventurer Lara Croft. The announcement comes as part of Square Enix, Crystal Dynamics, and Eidos-Montréal Tomb Raider 25th anniversary celebration.

The series will pick up after the video game reboot trilogy and follow the heroine 25 years after her first game appeared as she explores new territory.

Tomb Raider will be written by Tasha Huo, who is executive producing with dj2 Entertainment founder and CEO Dmitri M. Johnson, Stephan Bugaj and Howard Bliss. Jacob Robinson will be an executive producer via his company Tractor Pants.

Baylon will reprise his role from the video game as the voice of one of Lara’s most-trusted friends and voice of reason, Jonah Maiava.

Maldonado will voice tech expert and colleague Zip.

The Tomb Raider video games, developed by Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montréal and published by Square Enix, have sold more that 85 million copies in their quarter-century of existence. The most recent release in the series was 2018’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Allen is a series regular on Starz’s Heels. He’s also been cast in New Line’s reimagining of the 1990 hit comedy House Party for HBO Max and will be seen in Psych 3

Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” Opens Strong in China

Guillermo del Toro’s latest film is shaping up to be a hit in China…

The 53-year-old Mexican filmmaker’s Best Picture Oscar winner, The Shape Of Water, opened in fairy tale fashion in China over the weekend, grossing $10.35M (RMB 65.7M) on 17,000 screens.

The Shape of Water

The score tops all comps including Fox Searchlight stablemate Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri which bowed to $2.4M (RMB 15.2M) a few weeks back. It also helps push the awards-season darling across the $100M mark at the international box office.

Few recent Best Picture winners have even been released in China, so comps there are difficult to come by. However, Shape topped other films that have figured heavily in recent seasons including The Darkest Hour which opened to $2.2M (RMB 14.1M) and La La Land, which tapped out a $9.35M (RMB 59.3M) debut last year before twirling to a $36M final. The Middle Kingdom result is doubly impressive for a film that leans towards the art house.

The Chinese opening is also Shape‘s best Day One performance ($3M+) and its best launch weekend worldwide. Its PROC share this frame was 11.1% for the No. 4 position behind Tomb Raider, Black Panther and Operation Red Sea.

Online sentiment has been strong; the Sally Hawkins-starrer has a 7.3 score on reviews site Douban. Although del Toro was unable to visit China to promote the movie, he and Searchlight engaged with audiences there.

Post winning his Oscars, del Toro did a round of interviews for the Chinese press and spoke to a number of online influencers and ticketing apps. He also did greetings for some of those platforms and others.

Shape will continue to see play this week, coincidentally before the release this Friday of the del Toro produced Pacific Rim: Uprising.