While movies based on video games have a dubious track record, that doesn’t stop Hollywood from mining popular games for source material. The latest high-budget video game adaptation is Eli Roth’s highly-anticipated take on the Borderlands franchise. The Green Inferno director has assembled an all-star cast for his take on the first-person shooter, which includes the likes of Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Kevin Hart, to name a few.
In a new Instagram post, Curtis (who plays Dr. Patricia Tannis) shared a teaser image of Blanchett as alien-powered Siren Lilith, one of the four playable characters of the first Borderlands. And while the image is mostly silhouette, you can still catch hints of the game’s Lilith in the image:
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Along with Blanchett, Borderlands features an all-star cast that includes Édgar Ramírez as Atlas, Olivier Richters as Krom, Janina Gavankar as Commander Knoxx, Gina Gershon as Mad Moxxi, Cheyenne Jackson as Jakobs, Charles Babalola as Hammerlock, Benjamin Byron Davis as Marcus, Steven Boyer as Scooter, Ryann Redmond as Ellie, and Bobby Lee as Larry. And fans of the game can rest easy knowing that Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford and Strauss Zelnick (Take-Two Interactive) are attached as executive producers.
The official synopsis from Lionsgate reads:
“Two-time Academy Award® winner Cate Blanchett teams up with Kevin Hart in director Eli Roth’s Borderlands. Lilith (Blanchett), an infamous treasure hunter with a mysterious past, reluctantly returns to her home planet of Pandora to find the missing daughter of Atlas (Edgar Ramirez), the universe’s most powerful S.O.B. She forms an unexpected alliance with a ragtag team of misfits – Roland (Hart), once a highly respected soldier, but now desperate for redemption; Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), a feral pre-teen demolitionist; Krieg (Florian Munteanu), Tina’s musclebound, rhetorically challenged protector; Tannis (Curtis), the scientist who’s seen it all; and Claptrap (Jack Black), a persistently wiseass robot. These unlikely heroes must battle alien monsters and dangerous bandits to find and protect the missing girl, who may hold the key to unimaginable power. The fate of the universe could be in their hands – but they’ll be fighting for something more: each other. Based on one of the best selling videogame franchises of all time, welcome to Borderlands.”
In addition to its stellar cast, Borderlands also boasts an award-winning writer in Craig Mazin (Chernobyl). Mazin is also scripting the upcoming The Last of Us series for HBO. Both Borderlands and The Last of Us are working closely with game developers and creators to integrate all the things fans love from the games into the film/series.
With so many talented people involved, will Borderlands be the first video game movie to stand on its own as a film? We had high hopes for 2016’s Assassin’s Creed starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, and we all know how that turned out.
Are you a Borderlands fan? Will you be seeing this film when it comes out?
(via Polygon, image: Gearbox)
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