Borderlands, the video game franchise that defined the looter-shooter genre, is set to get its own cinematic universe – and now is the time. All six base games in the series are beloved by fans for their fantastical lore and quirky characters that you better believe will debut on-screen. Upcoming film adaptation from director Eli Roth Of the franchise.
There’s still a way to go before the film hits theaters this summer. Meanwhile, IGN sat down with Roth and Randy Pitchford, founder of Gearbox Entertainment and the film’s executive producer, to talk all things Borderlands ahead of tomorrow’s first official trailer release. You can watch an exclusive quick glimpse of the trailer via the player above or the embed below.
And if that wasn’t enough, IGN can also exclusively reveal a new poster for the Borderlands film, as shown below.
The way Pitchford and Roth interact, even over video calls, you’d think they were brothers. They both display the same fun-loving silliness that makes Borderlands, well, Borderlands. For me, the best example of this was how the two creators continued to talk about each other with humorous anecdotes. their time on set,
But all joking aside, the two get along well on a professional level which bodes well for this video game adaptation. Roth was given wide creative freedom on the project while Pitchford was on stand-by as a resource to provide in-depth information on the original series.
Roth said, “Obviously, it’s Randy’s baby, it’s his brainchild, and it’s everybody’s brainchild.” “You’re stepping into a world that’s so beloved and the fans are so fanatical that you think, ‘Okay, well, I really don’t want to screw it up.'”
Thankfully, Pitchford was open to almost everything. Roth recalled how Pitchford had embraced the idea of keeping Claptrap alive and entertained various suggestions from the Cabin Fever director about how the robot might be able to dodge bullets: “Would it be like a tail? Goes over and…are those little rabbit pellets?”
Seriously, it’s a blessing that this adaptation was made, and it shows Pitchford’s confidence in Roth as a director. Since the beginning of his career in the game industry, Pitchford said he has been turning down requests to adapt his studio work into film. Ari Arad, now a producer on the upcoming Borderlands film, came to Pitchford with several iterations of the script before the deal was finalized.
“Eventually, we were playing League of Legends together one day, Ari and I. He was support and I was ADC,” Pitchford explained. “While we were playing we were talking on chat, like on Discord, about the possibility of a movie.”
(In an ironic twist, the Gearbox Entertainment founder clarified that he was playing as Caitlyn, whom he says was “completely stripped of the mad moxie of Borderlands by the completely spontaneous entry of The Riot Team Was.”)
From there, the two began playing video games together frequently, which gave Pitchford the confidence to eventually sign on to develop a film adaptation of the Borderlands series. (That’s why I guess business deals don’t happen on golf courses anymore.)
Like the game, the upcoming film will take place on the fictional planet of Pandora for an action-packed adventure featuring some of the franchise’s most beloved characters. In this all-new interpretation of the video game series, audiences will see red-headed outlaw Lilith unite with a team of unlikely heroes to locate a missing girl who could change the fate of the universe.
Reflecting on the characters’ decision-making process, Roth told me, “At a certain point you just have to choose, these are our characters, this is the story we’re moving forward with, and let’s make the best one possible.” Will be seen in the upcoming film.
Because the film is not canon to the video game series, the creative team behind the Borderlands film had free rein to choose from among the franchise’s unique cast of characters – some of whom do not appear in the original story until a later game.
The film stars Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett as Lilith, Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina, Jack Black as the Voice of Claptrap, Jamie Lee Curtis as Tanis, Kevin Hart as Roland, Florian Munteanu as Roland It features a star-studded line-up of artists led by. Craig, and Gina Gershon as Moxie.
Other artists included in the full cast list include Edgar Ramirez, Bobby Lee, Janina Gavankar, Olivier Richters, Cheyenne Jackson, Benjamin Byron Davis, Charles Babalola, Steven Boyer, Ryan Redmond, Paula Andrea Placido, and more.
“I was like, ‘Find me the weirdest, creepiest people. We’ll put them in the movie.’ And everybody, they loved it,” Roth said.
Roth and Pitchford shed light on what it was like to convince some of these actors to say “yes”. We obviously had to figure out why someone like Blanchett would pull the trigger on a project like this, and the answer is, honestly, heart-touching.
In our conversation, Roth compared the Tarr actor to one of the three greatest female actors in history. Their working relationship dates back to the director’s 2018 fantasy film, The House with a Clock in Its Walls, in which Blanchett starred opposite Black. So, when it came time to figure out who would be the perfect lead for the Borderlands cast, there was no doubt in Roth’s mind that the Oscar winner was the best choice.
“I think with me, she’s allowed to be a little weird and a little crazy because it’s like, ‘Okay, this is Ellie,'” Roth said. “It’s just like, ‘Let’s have fun.’ But he’s obviously very serious about his role.”
For Curtis, the decision to join the cast was largely inspired by his gamer daughter, who is a fan of the Borderlands franchise, who said, “‘Mom, you have to do this movie,'” as Pitchford recalled.
In Black’s case, the roots run even deeper. In 2012, when Borderlands 2 was first being teased, he brought his son to E3. Black asked Pitchford for a demo of the game and the Gearbox founder told him he would have to play the role of Claptrap if a film adaptation of the franchise was ever made. Of course, the Nacho Libre star immediately agreed.
“Whether you’ve played a Borderlands game or not, this is a fun movie. “It’s a really fun movie,” Pitchford said.
Borderlands will be released in US theaters on August 9, 2024 by Lionsgate.
