The above photo (courtesy of Getty Images) does not hail from the upcoming Borderlands movie. Rather, the photo throws back to the 2016 Birmingham MCM Comic Con in England. That’s much longer than the official wait for a big-screen adaptation of the wildly popular shoot-’em-up game series (the same series that has such a devoted fanbase that they’ve been known to debate which incarnation is the most fun to play, and that’s fun, too). Still, gamers have been patiently waiting while The Last Of Us, Super Mario Bros., Five Nights At Freddy’s, and Twisted Metal have all sprung to live-action life.
By and large, the above projects performed well with ratings and box-office dollars as well as audience/critic clout. So, it’s fair to say that this bodes well for Borderlands but also piles on the pressure, too. High expectations, man! Let’s talk about where the movie stands as of January 2024.
Plot
The making of this adaptation has been quite a journey thus far, with a script initially hailing from Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) before the process changed hands, culminating in Eli Roth (that shark lover extraordinaire) stepping up to pen the final version.
Notably, Cate Blanchett (who worked with Roth on The House With A Clock In Its Walls) stars in this movie as notorious outlaw Lilith. She will kick off the action while attempting to locate the “missing daughter of the universe’s most powerful S.O.B., Atlas” on Pandora, according to Lionsgate’s description:
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.
Roth recently spoke with IGN (ahead of Thanksgiving) and promised that the film will not be “too slavish” to the source material. That is to say, “I didn’t just want to film the game. We wanted to tell a great story on its own, but of course it’s loaded with Easter eggs for the fans. It’s a big movie.” He also stressed that the movie adaptation(s) would have their own canon aside from the canon of the video games.
Kevin Hart also stars the film and told Collider that, at least visually speaking, “It looks like the game. It’s unbelievable, truly unbelievable.”
Cast
In addition to Cate Blanchett as Lilith, the project will also star Kevin Hart as Roland, Gina Gershon as Mad Moxxi, Jamie Lee Curtis as Dr. Patricia Tennis, and Jack Black as Claptrap. The cast further includes Édgar Ramirez, Ariana Greenblatt, Haley Bennett, Cheyenne Jackson, and more.
Release Date
As of now, Borderlands is still on the calendar for an August 9, 2024 theatrical release.
Trailer
Surely, at least a teaser trailer will be on the way soon? Until then, here’s the aforementioned interview snippet of Kevin Hart speaking to Collider.