As the video game movie rage continues, a particular project has cemented its release. Eli Roth’s live-action take on Borderlands is hitting theatres on 9 August 2024, marking the end of a long road that saw reports of a troubled production.
The announcement came out of San Diego Comic Con 2023, with no new trailer or images revealed. There was, however, a little more information on the plot summary — the adaptation will star Cate Blanchett as Lilith, a treasure hunter who returns to Pandora to find the missing daughter of Atlas (Edgar Ramirez, Zero Dark Thirty). Along the way, she forms an alliance with Kevin Hart’s Roland, Ariana Greenblatt’s Tiny Tina, Florian Munteanu’s Krieg, Jamie Lee Curtis’ Tannis, and of course, Jack Black’s Claptrap. The group works to fend off monsters and bandits while looking for the girl together, only to uncover a greater power behind it all.
The Borderlands film is directed and written by Roth, who was briefly replaced by Deadpool‘s Tim Miller earlier this year (the latter had to step in for reshoots because Roth was busy). It has been in development since 2015, but updates — including a first look at Claptrap and a quick glimpse of the set — have remained few and far between.
Most recently, the movie removed Craig Mazin, showrunner and co-creator of HBO’s The Last of Us, from its writing credits. This comes after he was previously announced as a co-writer, with Mazin confirming that he “cannot claim any kind of authorship of Borderlands“. The reasons behind this change remain unclear.
Developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K, the first Borderlands entry received critical acclaim upon its release. The action-role playing shooter sold over two million by the end of 2009, and went on to spawn four DLCs, three follow-ups (Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, and Borderlands 3), and a remastered version for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and the Nintendo Switch.
The Borderlands film will release 9 August.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
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