There’s still a way to go before the film hits theaters this summer. Meanwhile, IGN sat down with Roth and Randy Pitchford, founder of Gearbox Entertainment and executive producer of the film, to tell them all about Borderlands ahead of tomorrow’s first official trailer. You can see a quick and exclusive preview of the trailer in the player above or in the one embedded below.
And as if that weren’t enough, IGN would also possibly exclusively reveal the new Borderlands movie poster, as seen below.
From the way Pitchford and Roth interact, even on a video call, you’d think they’d be brothers. Or they exude the same awkward laugh that makes Borderlands, well, Borderlands. To me, this is the most productive thing illustrated through the way the two creatives interrupted each other with comedic anecdotes about their time on set.
But all jokes aside, the two get along well professionally, which bodes well for this video game adaptation. Roth was given a lot of artistic freedom in the task, while Pitchford was on standby as a resource to provide a deeper look at the original series.
“Obviously, it’s Randy’s baby, it’s his idea and it’s everyone’s idea,” Roth said. “You’re entering a world that’s so enjoyable and the enthusiasts are so hardcore that you’re like, ‘Okay, well, I don’t need to spoil it. ‘”
Luckily, Pitchford was open to just about anything. Roth recalled how receptive Pitchford was even to the idea of keeping Claptrap alive and heeded the Cabin Fever director’s advice on how the robot can simply eject balls: “It’s like you raise a tail and. . . Are they bunnies?” balls?
Truly, it’s a blessing that this adaptation was made, and it’s a wonderful testament to Pitchford’s trust in Roth as a director. Since he began his career in the video game industry, Pitchford has said that he has turned down requests to adapt his studio’s paintings to film. Ari Arad, who is now the producer of the next Borderlands movie, came to Pitchford with several versions of the script before closing the deal.
“Finally, one day Ari and I were playing League of Legends together. He was him and I was the ADC,” Pitchford explained. We were talking in a chat, like on Discord, about the option to make a movie while we were playing. “
(In an ironic twist, the Gearbox Entertainment founder clarified that he was playing the role of Caitlyn, who he said “was absolutely scammed through Mad Moxxi from Borderlands, through the comfortable admission of the Riot team. “)
From there, the two began playing together frequently, which gave Pitchford the confidence to finally approve the development of a film adaptation of the Borderlands series. (So I guess business transactions don’t take place on the golf course anymore. ). )
Just like in the game, the upcoming film will be set on the fictional planet of Pandora and will be an action-packed adventure starring some of the franchise’s most beloved characters. In this new version of the video game series, audiences will see a redhead Outlaw Lilith joins a team of unlikely heroes to track down a missing woman who could replace the fate of the universe.
“At some point, you just have to choose, those are our characters, this is the story we follow, and we just do what we can,” Roth told me, reflecting on the decision-making procedure related to the characters. the next movie.
Because the film is rarely very canonical for the video game series, the Borderlands film’s art team had carte blanche to choose from the franchise’s exclusive cast of characters, some of whom don’t appear until later in the original script.
The film features a star-studded cast led by Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett as Lilith, along with Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina, Jack Black as Claptrap, Jamie Lee Curtis as Tannis, Kevin Hart as Roland, Florian Munteanu as Krieg and Gina. Gershon as Moxxi.
Other additions to the full cast include Edgar Ramirez, Bobby Lee, Janina Gavankar, Olivier Richters, Cheyenne Jackson, Benjamin Byron Davis, Charles Babalola, Steven Boyer, Ryann Redmond, Paula Andrea Placido and more.
“I like, ‘Find me the weirdest, most twisted people. ‘We’ll include them in the movie “And everyone enjoyed it,” Roth said.
Roth and Pitchford explained to us what it means to convince some of those actors to say “yes. “Obviously we had to figure out what drove someone like Blanchett to push the cause forward on a commission like this, and the answer is, honestly, heartwarming. .
During our conversation, Roth compared the actor Tár to one of the three most important female performers in history. Her career dates back to the director’s 2018 fantasy film, The House with a Clock in Its Walls, in which Blanchett starred alongside Black. So when it came time to decide who would be the right lead role for the Borderlands cast, there was no doubt in Roth’s brain that the Oscar winner was the most productive choice.
“I think with me she has permission to get a little weird and a little crazy because she’s like, ‘Well, it’s Eli,'” Roth said. “It’s like, ‘Let’s have fun. ‘” But it’s clear that he takes his character very seriously. “
For Curtis, the casting decision was motivated in large part by her daughter, a gamer and fan of the Borderlands franchise, who told her, “Mom, you have to make this movie,” as Pitchford recalls.
In Black’s case, the roots run even deeper. In 2012, she took his son to E3 when Borderlands 2 was first revealed. Black asked Pitchford for a demo of the game and the Gearbox founder told him that he would have to play Claptrap if a film adaptation of the franchise was ever made. The Nacho Libre star, of course, gladly agreed.
“Whether you’ve played a Borderlands game or not, it’s a laugh movie. It’s a laugh movie,” Pitchford said.
Borderlands will be released in US theaters via Lionsgate on August 9, 2024.
It is not yet available for streaming.