Good news, Borderland fans! The live-action film adaptation of your beloved video game series, originally announced in 2015, is finally on the way. According to the film’s official Twitter account, the film will hit theaters in August – of next year.
The Borderlands movie wrapped up filming more than two years ago, which is why its official debut date, August 9, 2024, is perplexing, to say the least. This means that the film took three years to arrive in theaters after it finished filming.
What’s more? Tim Miller, who is best known for his work on Deadpool and Terminator: Dark Fate, took over as the director in January when they did some reshoots for the film. The excuse for that was that the original director was hard at work on another project but that didn’t make the announcement any less surprising.
— Borderlands (@BorderlandsFilm) July 20, 2023
Also, one of the film’s writers, Craig Mazin, had his name removed from the writing credits earlier this month. Mazin is one of the co-creators of the highly successful HBO series The Last of Us. In our opinion, the fact that such a talented writer and filmmaker doesn’t want to be associated with the project anymore says a lot, none of them positive, about the film.
As we mentioned, the Borderlands film is based on a popular video game series of the same name. However, the film won’t be true to the games and it will tell a story that is independent of the gaming franchise.
The Borderlands will follow an outlaw, Lillith, who returns to her native planet of Pandora after a prolonged absence. Her mission, and her reason for coming back, is to rescue the daughter of one of the most powerful persons in the universe. To achieve her goal, she enlists the help of a group of people and forms a team.
In 2021, Randy Pitchford, the franchise’s creator, said that the Borderlands Cinematic Universe is not the same as the Borderlands Videogame Universe. He explained that the decision to tell a different in the film was informed by the fact that it is a different medium from the games.
To illustrate, Pitchford pointed at Marvel Studios and how it has approached its adaptations of Marvel comic books for the screen.
One thing he did promise, though, is that the parallel universe will retain the franchise’s tone and style, as well as the personality of the characters. Despite these concessions, the choice to tell a different story is one that many fans have struggled with. But then, many won’t know what exactly to make of it all until the film debuts next year.
To the interested: The Borderlands Cinematic Universe is not identical to the Borderlands Videogame Universe. We are authentic to characters, tone and style, but allow for independent storylines. The mediums are not the same, so the content should not be bound to the same rules.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) April 6, 2021
The Borderlands movie stars some of Hollywood’s biggest talents, including Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Ariana Greenblatt, and Florian Munteanu. Eli Roth, popular for his work on the horror films The Green Inferno and Hostel, directed the film before Miller took over for the reshoots.
The Borderlands movie will traipse into theaters on August 9, 2024.
