Horror director Eli Roth is set to helm a big-screen adaptation of Gearbox Software and 2K's Borderlands video game. The project is being developed at Lionsgate and will work from a script from Chernobyl screenwriter Craig Mazin. Roth will also produce along with Avi and Ari Arad through their Arad Productions banner.
Borderlands is a somewhat bizarre first-person, loot-based shooter which focuses on four “Vault Hunters” fending off local marauders while searching for advanced alien tech on a planet called Pandora. There have been three games released so far, and all have sold very well. Borderlands 3 hit shelves last September and has already sold 8 million copies.
“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. 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,” Roth said in a statement. “I look forward to bringing my own energy, ideas, and vision to the wild, fun, and endlessly creative world of the game. Randy Pitchford and everyone at Gearbox have been incredibly supportive of my ideas – it really feels like a perfect storm of creators coming together. We are out to make a new classic, one which the fans of the game will love, but also one which will find new audiences globally.”
"With Eli's vision and Craig's screenplay, we believe we have cracked the code on bringing the anarchic world of Borderlands to the big screen in a big way that will be a fresh, compelling and cinematic event for moviegoers and fans of the game," added President of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Nathan Kahane.
What do you guys make of this news? Do you think Roth is the right director to bring Borderlands to the screen? Let us know in the comments.
About The Author:
Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.