Eli Roth invites us to Borderlands in first trailer

Who knew Cate Blanchett would follow up her TÁR Oscar run with a blockbuster video game adaptation? Well, those who have been following the long road to the Borderlands adaptation knew; Blanchett has been attached to star since May 2020, not long after her The House With A Clock In Its Walls director Eli Roth signed on to direct. She was eventually joined by an eclectic group of stars: Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Edgar Ramírez, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Gina Gershon, and Jamie Lee Curtis (also fresh off an Oscar run). Now, the long-awaited movie finally has a trailer ahead of its release date on August 9.

“Lilith (Blanchett), an infamous bounty hunter with a mysterious past, reluctantly returns to her home, Pandora, the most chaotic planet in the galaxy. Her mission is to find the missing daughter of Atlas (Ramírez), the universe’s most powerful S.O.B,” reads a synopsis for the film. “Lilith forms an unexpected alliance with a ragtag team of misfits—Roland (Hart), a seasoned mercenary on a mission; Tiny Tina (Greenblatt), a feral pre-teen demolitionist; Krieg (Munteanu), Tina’s musclebound protector; Tannis (Curtis), the oddball scientist who’s seen it all; and Claptrap (Black), a wiseass robot. Together, these unlikely heroes must battle an alien species and dangerous bandits to uncover one of Pandora’s most explosive secrets. 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.”

When Borderlands was announced, Emmy winner Craig Mazin was attached to pen the script. But Mazin apparently moved on to his own video game adaptation, as the screenplay is credited to Roth and Joe Crombie based on a story from Roth. Last year, the horror auteur told IGN that “There are certain things that we kept very, very close” to the game, “but I really worked with [Gearbox Software CEO] Randy Pitchford, and he goes, ‘Think of it like Marvel, where the comics are their own canon and the movies are their own canon, and you don’t have to be married to it. The games are going to be the games and the movie’s, the movie, and if they continue it, great,’ ” he said. “So we could use certain things, but I didn’t want to have to be too slavish. I didn’t just want to film the game. We wanted to tell a great story on its own, but of course it’s loaded with Easter eggs for the fans. It’s a big movie.”