Over the weekend, rumours started swirling that Deadpool and Terminator: Dark Fate helmer Tim Miller had taken over directing duties from Eli Roth on the upcoming Borderlands movie. Now, Deadline (via GameFragger.com) has shared some additional details on what's really going on.
Roth, whose directing credits include horror hits such as Hostel and The Green Inferno, will make his big-budget action debut with this video game adaptation.
However, he's now handed over the reins of the movie to his friend, Miller, for two weeks of reshoots. While there was speculation Roth might have been replaced, it's said the filmmaker simply had to start work on his upcoming horror movie Thanksgiving, so this seems to be a case of scheduling issues rather than anything nefarious!
The trade reiterates that Roth has not been fired, and that this was an "amicable handing of the baton." Additional photography is a normal part of any big movie's production schedule, and the buzz surrounding Borderlands remains positive. As always, we can't help but wonder if there's something more at play here, but we're unlikely to find out either way.
Roth, for example, doesn't have a tonne of action experience, whereas Miller is something of an expert in that realm. With a movie like Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey, for example, John Wick director Chad Stahelski was enlisted to take the helm of some action scenes given Cathy Yan's inexperience, so perhaps that's the case here as well?
Regardless, in Borderlands, Lilith (Cate Blanchett), 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 (Edgar Ramirez).
Lilith forms an alliance with an unexpected team – Roland (Kevin Hart), a former elite mercenary, now desperate for redemption; Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), a feral pre-teen demolitionist; Krieg (Florian Munteanu), Tina’s musclebound, rhetorically challenged protector; Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis), the scientist with a tenuous grip on sanity; and Claptrap (Jack Black), 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.
Borderlands doesn't currently have a release date, but will likely hit theaters sometime in 2024.