The ‘Deadpool’ director takes over directorial duties on video game adaptation, as previous director Eli Roth focuses on ‘Thanksgiving’ feature.
Eli Roth (Hostel, Grindhouse) has handed over his directorial duties to Tim Miller (Deadpool, Love, Death + Robots) for reshoots on Borderlands, the film adaptation of the beloved video game franchise. Roth will now focus on directing the horror flick Thanksgiving, based on his mock trailer from Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse, which Borderlands reshoots threatened to upend. He was not fired, as some have reported.
Shoots for the slasher, about a man who creates his own festive carving board out of the inhabitants of a Massachusetts town, begin in March, from a full-length script by Jeff Rendell. Roger Birnbaum and Roth will produce with backing by Spyglass.
In Borderlands, Lilith (Cate Blanchett), an infamous outlaw with a mysterious past, reluctantly returns to her home planet of Pandora to find the missing daughter of the universe’s most powerful S.O.B. Atlas (Edgar Ramirez). Lilith forms an alliance with an unexpected team – Roland (Kevin Hart), a former elite mercenary, now desperate for redemption; Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), a feral pre-teen demolitionist; Krieg (Florian Munteanu), Tina’s musclebound, rhetorically challenged protector; Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis), the scientist with a tenuous grip on sanity; 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 video game, a first-person action-adventure shooter known for its quirky plots, raunchy jokes, and comic book art style, was originally launched in 2009 by developer Gearbox Software and publisher Take-Two Interactive Software’s 2K Games. Roth seems a perfect fit for the adaptation, with Nathan Kahane of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group saying, “With Eli’s vision and Craig’s [Mazin] screenplay, we believe we have cracked the code on bringing the anarchic world of Borderlands to the big screen in a big way […]”
Avi Arad (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Iron Man) and Ari Arad (Ghost in the Shell, The Punisher) produce along with Picturestart’s Erik Feig (Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Sicario). Randy Pitchford (Borderlands, Half Life: Decay) and Strauss Zelnick of Take-Two will executive produce.
Borderlands is expected to release sometime in 2023. No word yet on the VFX production.
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