Production on Amazon MGM Studios’ forthcoming TOMB RAIDER series has received an improvement notice from the UK’s Health and Safety Executive over working practices involving potentially hazardous paints at Shinfield Studios.
According to Deadline, the notice was issued in April to Project Temple Productions Ltd, the production company behind the forthcoming series starring Sophie Turner as Lara Croft.
The issue related specifically to crew members carrying out biological monitoring while isocyanate paints were being sprayed, with the HSE determining that adequate control measures had not been implemented.
Importantly, the production subsequently complied with the improvement notice within approximately a month.
The matter therefore shouldn’t be confused with claims that production has been shut down or that the series remains in breach of the notice.
Nor is there any suggestion that Turner herself was involved in the health and safety issue.
For The Fan Carpet, the forthcoming series is one we’ve been following with particular interest.
Turner takes over one of gaming’s most recognisable roles as archaeologist and adventurer Lara Croft, following previous live-action interpretations by Angelina Jolie and Alicia Vikander.
And Turner is somebody we’ve been watching for considerably longer than her latest adventure.
We first encountered the actress during the early years of GAME OF THRONES, when The Fan Carpet met Turner around the London premiere of Olympus Has Fallen back in 2013.
Turner would go on to complete Sansa Stark’s extraordinary eight-season journey through Westeros, take on Jean Grey in the X-Men universe and continue building a career across film and television.
The Amazon MGM series marks another major interpretation of Lara Croft, a character who has evolved considerably since making her videogame debut in 1996.
While health and safety notices inevitably generate less glamorous headlines than casting announcements and first-look images, they’re an important part of productions on this scale.
Isocyanates are chemicals used in certain paints and coatings which can pose health risks when appropriate exposure controls aren’t followed.
The HSE’s involvement here concerned those workplace controls rather than the creative production itself.
The fact that the notice was subsequently complied with is therefore an important part of the story.
Deadline also reports that production previously experienced a separate interruption after Turner sustained a minor injury, resulting in filming being paused for approximately two weeks.
That incident and the HSE improvement notice are separate matters and shouldn’t be conflated.
Amazon MGM Studios declined to comment to Deadline regarding the HSE notice.
With production continuing, attention will ultimately return to what matters to audiences: seeing exactly what Sophie Turner brings to Lara Croft when TOMB RAIDER makes its return to live action.
And having followed Turner since those early Game of Thrones years, The Fan Carpet will certainly be watching.
