In a week that was chock full of good news for horror fans, we also got a titbit that will no doubt excite gaming fans everywhere. Eli Roth’s highly anticipated movie adaption of the successful Borderlands games series now has an official release date!
Initially conceived as far back as 2015, a Borderlands adaption for the big screen was initially floated by Saw and Insidious scribe Leigh Whannel. All seemed to go quiet until 2020, when it was announced director Eli Roth was circling the project, as well as actress Cate Blanchette. Craig Mazin of The Last of Us was initially attached to the script, but it was subsequently re-written by Roth, Juel Taylor and Tony Rettenmaier.
Filming began in April 2021, with Blanchette leading a stellar cast also including Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Jamie Lee Curtis. Once again all seemed quiet until a short burst of reshoots were announced in January 2023, without Roth’s involvement due to scheduling conflicts with Thanksgiving. Now with a solid release date in place, Borderlands will soon go full steam ahead with its promotional campaign.
Lionsgate describes the adaption as follows:
“Lilith, an infamous outlaw with a mysterious past, reluctantly returns to her home planet of Pandora to find the missing daughter of the universe’s most powerful S.O.B., Atlas. Lilith forms an alliance with an unexpected team – Roland, a former elite mercenary, now desperate for redemption; Tiny Tina, a feral pre-teen demolitionist; Krieg, Tina’s musclebound, rhetorically challenged protector; Tannis, the scientist with a tenuous grip on sanity; and Claptrap, a persistently wiseass robot. These unlikely heroes must battle alien monsters and dangerous bandits to find and protect the missing girl, who may hold the key to unimaginable power. The fate of the universe could be in their hands but they’ll be fighting for something more: each other.”
Lionsgate are set to release Borderlands on August 9th 2024. Will this be one of the better video game adaptions? Or will it fall victim to that pesky adaption curse? We’ll certainly report all the details upon its August 9th release.
