We learned something new about the Borderlands movie today, thanks to a new Variety report that suggests actress Cate Blanchett is now in talks to play the role of Lilith.
Lilith is one of the central characters of the Borderlands series and her inclusion was inevitable. She is leader of the resistance group known as the Crimson Raiders, and possesses powerful psychic abilities. She was playable as one of the original four in Borderlands 1, and prior to the release of to Borderlands 3, was the headline character in “Commander Lilith and the Fight For Sanctuary,” a DLC interquel for Borderlands 2.
Blanchett is the first actor to be publicly revealed for the Borderlands movie; it’s unknown who they have in mind for the others. The picture is being produced by Avi Arad, Ari Arad, and Erik Feig, from a script by Craig Mazin, who is also working on a Last Of Us project for HBO. Randy Pitchford of Gearbox and Strauss Zelnick of Take-Two, overseers of the game franchise, will make sure the movie is authentic. Sitting in the director’s chair is horror king, Eli Roth, handling a different kind of movie. (Borderlands is many things, but cannot by any means be described as “scary.”)
“I’m so excited to dive into the world of Borderlands and I could not be doing it with a better script, producing team, and studio,” said Roth last February. “I have a long, successful history with Lionsgate – I feel like we have grown up together and that everything in my directing career has led to a project of this scale and ambition. I look forward to bringing my own energy, ideas, and vision to the wild, fun, and endlessly creative world of the game.”
The arrangement is not a done deal. It’s possible that the talks could fall through, or that the Borderlands movie might not happen at all. Lionsgate first announced this project nearly five years ago, and it’s been in limbo for most of that time, but we’ve been hearing a lot more about it this year than we have in the last four, indicating there may finally be serious movement. We’ll see where this goes.
