Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Tomb Raider is canned by Amazon

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Phoebe Waller-Bridge's long-awaited, big-budget Tomb Raider TV series has been scrapped by Amazon.

Sources say the idea of bringing Lara Croft to the small screen is 'dead' following numerous problems.

Certainly there are no signs of it being filmed 'in early 2025', which was the promise from a Prime Video executive last year.

Big name: Phoebe Waller-Bridge poses during a photo call for the movie Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny

Game Of Thrones star Sophie Turner, who was reportedly in negotiations to play Lara Croft, is busy with other films for much of this year. 'I hear that it is not going ahead,' says a source.

A spokesperson for Prime Video had no comment; nor did representatives for Waller-Bridge.

The project was dealt a serious blow last week when Jennifer Salke, who gave Tomb Raider the green light and was personally overseeing the project, was relieved of her role as the head of Amazon Studios.

Salke, formerly head of entertainment at NBC, signed Waller-Bridge to a $20million-a-year golden handcuffs deal back in 2019.

That deal, which is estimated to have netted the British star $100milion, has become one of the most notorious flops in Hollywood.

It has resulted in not a single minute of broadcast content to date.

Waller-Bridge has taken on two acting roles over the past six years — in Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny (for Disney), and in animated Paramount film If.

She was to have written and starred in a TV reboot of the film Mr And Mrs Smith, but quit in 2021. She wasn't even given a writing credit on the show, which eventually came out starring Maya Erskine and Donald Glover.

Notwithstanding all of the above, the handcuffs deal was renewed in 2022, and it was announced that Waller-Bridge was working on a big budget TV series based on the Tomb Raider video games.

Salke said in 2023: 'We're so happy now that we retained her because she grew up playing Lara Croft/Tomb Raider. We think it's going to be a huge franchise for us.'

The same year Waller-Bridge told Vanity Fair: 'The opportunity to have... a female action character... having worked on Bond [she polished dialogue on No Time To Die] and having worked as an actor on Indy, I feel like I've been building up to this.'

The first signs of serious trouble came last October when, as noted in this column, Waller-Bridge was not present at Amazon's Trailblazers event in London.

News website Puck's Matt Belloni reports Tomb Raider still doesn't have a script, despite 'millions' being poured into developing the idea.

Belloni also says Waller-Bridge's Amazon deal was quietly renewed before Salke departed, but it is now on a non-exclusive, first look basis; and for a fraction of the previous sum.