Among the likes of Uncharted, Halo, and Call of Duty, Borderlands has been trying to get a film adaptation for years. After a long period of silence, it appears some progress is being made.
Actor and director Eli Roth will be helming the Borderlands film with a script from HBO’s Chernobyl writer Craig Mazin. It’s unclear if the film will directly adapt the story from one of the games or if Roth and Mazin will delve deeper into the world that Gearbox has created for an original story.
“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.
The film will be produced by former longtime Spider-Man producer and Metal Gear Solid film producer Avi Arad, his son Ari Arad, and Erik Feig. Take-Two head Straus Zelnick and Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford will also lend their names to the film’s credits as executive producers. There’s no release date for the video game film at the moment but it seems a script has already been penned by Mazin.
“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,” said Nathan Kahane, president of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, in his own statement.
Eli Roth is known for his twisted, violent films such as Cabin Fever and Hostel but has also starred in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds. His roots seem to make him a rather good fit for the grimy, chaotic universe that is Borderlands.
Borderlands made its most recent video game appearance last year with the long-awaited Borderlands 3 which is out now on Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
