Eli Roth's Borderlands Release Date, Cast, Plot And More Details
It's a tall order for filmmakers to adapt a popular video games series. Not only do they have to please legions of fans who love a unique and culturally entrenched property, but they also have to transform something interactive and dynamic into a narrative format that retains the magic and specialness of the original. Fortunately, Hollywood seems to have figured it out in recent years, with well-received console-to-cinema projects like "Detective Pikachu," a couple of "Sonic the Hedgehog" adaptations, and "The Super Mario Bros. Movie."
Jumping to the big screen relatively soon, we'll see a feature-length version of the character-driven sci-fi space game franchise "Borderlands." Incorporating action, humor, monsters, and aliens, "Borderlands" is a very cinematic game, and with tens of millions of copies sold, the series has a built-in and likely eager audience. The movie version has been in the works for years, but a cast and crew filled with notable names means this could be a potential blockbuster. Here's everything we know so far about the long and greatly anticipated "Borderlands" movie.
When will the Borderlands movie be released?
The "Borderlands" movie has been in the pipeline for quite a while. By the time of its scheduled arrival in movie theaters, nearly a decade will have passed from when the producers gave it the green light.
In 2015, production and distribution company Lionsgate announced that it had formed a partnership with video game publisher Gearbox Software to adapt their hit game "Borderlands" into a highly budgeted, high-profile feature. Lionsgate kept working on the movie for five years but with little to show for its efforts until 2020, when it hired "Hostel," "Hemlock Grove," and "The House with a Clock in Its Walls" helmer Eli Roth to direct the adaptation.
Filming commenced, with reshoots completed in early 2023. And then a few months after that, Lionsgate revealed at the 2023 San Diego Comic-Con that its "Borderlands" movie was set to hit movie theaters on August 9, 2024. August will be quite the month for genre fans, as "Borderlands" will share the box office with titles such "Captain America: Brave New World," Fede Álvarez's "Alien" installment, and M. Night Shyamalan's thriller "Trap."
What is the plot of the Borderlands movie?
The original "Borderlands" video games concern the exploits of Vault Hunters — space travelers and treasure hunters who explore the planet Pandora for specific and highly coveted valuables. The "Borderlands" movie will incorporate that basic structure and many of the game's original characters with a high-stakes plot.
The film will find an enigmatic treasure seeker named Lilith heading to Pandora, her home planet, in search of the missing daughter of the powerful, literally universally hated Atlas. To complete the mercenary task at hand, she forms a not-quite-all-star team of ne'er-do-wells. Among the crowd, there's a formerly heroic/now maligned soldier named Roland, an unpredictable teenage agent of anarchy and destruction called Tiny Tina, and Tiny Tina's inscrutable and intimidating bodyguard Krieg. Plus, we'll see grizzled, weary scientist Tannis, as well as Claptrap, a smug and sarcastic talking robot.
As the collective travels through dangerous cosmic locales in their hunt for Atlas' daughter — with whom a dangerous and powerful secret rests — they'll encounter (and fight) space criminals, aliens, and monsters while also inadvertently building their odd little chosen family.
Who is starring in the Borderlands movie?
With a reputation as one of the most popular video game franchises ever and a creative staff of acclaimed film professionals, the "Borderlands" film was able to attract a main cast of A-list actors, Academy Award winners, and sought-after rising stars.
Leading the cast as Pandoran hunter and rescue mission leader Lilith, we've got eight-time Oscar nominee (and two-time winner) Cate Blanchett. Stand-up comedian and star of blockbuster comedy franchises "Jumanji" and "Ride Along" Kevin Hart will portray haunted soldier Roland. And newly minted Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis of "Everything Everywhere All at Once" plays resident scientist Tannis.
Jack Black – a V.O. veteran with the "Kung Fu Panda" movies and "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" — voices Claptrap the robot, and Arianna Greenblatt — who had a huge 2023 with prominent roles in "65," "Barbie," and "Ahsoka" — inhabits the role of Tiny Tina, opposite Florian Munteanu (Viktor Drago in the "Creed" sequels) as bodyguard Krieg. Edgar Ramirez ("Jungle Cruise") plays the loathed Atlas.
Who is writing and directing the Borderlands movie?
With a 96% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes, "The Last of Us" is one of the best TV series of 2023 — and perhaps the decade so far. Screenwriter Craig Mazin developed that HBO series, and so "Borderlands" was seemingly in good hands when he reportedly came aboard the project. On the "Borderlands" movie's official website, he's listed as a co-writer along with horror filmmaker Eli Roth, but Mazin denies all involvement. "I am not a credited writer on the film, so I cannot claim any kind of authorship of 'Borderlands,' much less 'co-writing,'" he told Variety. IMDb lists "Borderlands" as the one and only credit for writer Joe Crombie — which Mazin says isn't him using a pseudonym.
This suggests that the only official screenwriter of "Borderlands" is Eli Roth, who also directed the video game movie. Roth is best known for delivering a whole lot of gore with films like "Hostel," "Green Inferno," and "Cabin Fever," as well as portraying a pretty memorable character in "Inglourious Basterds." But he didn't direct all of "Borderlands." In 2023, "Borderlands" executive producer Tim Miller, best known for helming "Deadpool" and "Terminator Dark Fate" handled reshoots on the movie. Roth was unavailable, having moved on to direct "Thanksgiving" from a script he wrote himself.