After almost a year of intense preparation, the much anticipated Tomb Raider movie reboot starts its first day of shooting in and around Cape Town next week.

Under the helm of hot Norwegian director Roar Uthaug, the first week films at a quarry on a Paarl wine estate where a substantial number of the scenes set out for the next three months will be shot.

The rest of this new Lara Croft saga will be shot mainly in aircraft hangar-type studios in and around the city where sets have been especially built. They include stages in Epping and at Cape Town Film Studios (CTFS) off Baden Powell Drive.

In addition to indoor stages, some of the action-packed shooting will take place in a specially-constructed outdoor water tank on the CTFS lot.

Featuring a flotilla of patchwork boats and small ships, it has been built to mimic a section of a Hong Kong fishing harbour.

In one of the main scenes to be shot here, Croft chases a gang of knife-wielding teenagers who later turn on her. In one daring stunt she will leap from a boat into a helicopter.

Shooting in South Africa wraps at the end of April and then shifts to the UK in May.

The film was originally going to be shot in Australia, but producers moved to South Africa after a dispute with Australian authorities over tax offset incentives for location shooting.

FIRST IMAGES OF THE FILM SET