Eli Roth bringing looter-shooter Borderlands to the big screen
Eli Roth has been confirmed to be directing a movie adaption of the hugely popular, and hugely LGBTQ-friendly, Borderlands series.
Fresh off the release of Borderlands 3 in September last year, this news is awesome and the pick of director could be inspirational. The infamous horror director (Hostel and The Green Inferno) will bring a unique look at the hyper-realised game series known for its guns, gore and explosions.
Roth will be working with producers Avi Arad (Spider-Man: Into The Spider-verse), Ari Arad and Erik Feig with a script drafted by Craig Manzin, who recently won two Emmys for his work on HBO’s Chernobyl. This has winning combination written all over it, and I’m super-excited already.
In a press release from studio Lionsgate, Roth said:
“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.”
“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.”
Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford will also serve as an executive producer on the film, as well as Strauss Zelnick, chairman and CEO of Take-Two Interactive.
It’s currently unclear if the Borderlands movie will re-tell the tale from one of the Borderlands games, or tell a different story from the world of Pandora. All I hope is that it carries over the hugely diverse roster of characters from the games and embraces the authentic representation of its LGBTQ characters we have come to love.