Lionsgate has tapped director Eli Roth to helm a Borderlands movie they’ve had in development for some time. Roth traditionally traffics in gory horror spectacles; if the tone is the same as the video game series, it’ll be one of his rare comedic works. Avi Arad, Ari Arad, and Erik Feig will serve as producers.
“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,” bragged Roth in a public statement. “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.”
At first glance the Borderlands franchise seems like just a goofy loot shooter with juvenile humor, but Telltale Games (RIP) proved the world of Pandora was rich for storytelling with its Tales From The Borderlands series. All we really need to make this a good movie is a talented writer.
And…..they hired Craig Mazin to write. Mazin was behind HBO’s award-winning Chernobyl series, but that’s the kindest thing you can say about him. He wrote the sequel to The Hangover, the sequel to Scary Movie, and the sequel to The Huntsman. Maybe his work on Chernobyl means he’s finally grown talent, but we won’t hold our breath.
We don’t see this turning out well, but it may not happen at all. Lionsgate first announced a Borderlands movie nearly five years ago. Usually it’s not a good sign that something takes this long to secure a director, and a lot of Hollywood projects with that kind of pattern just quietly evaporate. If luck is on Gearbox’s side, they won’t have to watch their property be tainted.
