Lionsgate has announced that Eli Roth will direct a movie based on Gearbox Software’s best-selling video game franchise, Borderlands, which has been credited for inventing the popular loot-shooter genre. The film has been in the works since 2015, but production will finally begin later this year.
Roth hasn’t commented on whether he’s played the games, but his filmography makes him a curious choice. This is the man who brought us bloody, hyper-violent shockers such as Hostel, Cabin Fever, and The Green Inferno, which are arguably fine examples of horror in their own right – but not something we’d think of for a zany, space-western romp like Borderlands.
It’ll be interesting to see how Roth’s taste for the macabre translates to the series’s campy sensibilities, but the director did prove that he can traverse genres with 2018’s fantasy film, The House with a Clock in Its Walls.
“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,” said Roth.
” 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.”
Since its inception in 2009, the Borderlands franchise has managed to sell over 50 million units worldwide. Borderlands 3, the latest installment, sold over 5 million copies in its first week.