There was a legend… Many people tell it. The legend of the Vault.
Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel) is all set to direct a Borderlands film adaptation for Lionsgate which will, apparently, be recognisably Roth-gory while still keeping to Borderlands’ colourfully absurd tone. They’ve been working on it since 2015.
Lionsgate Motion Picture Group president Nathan Kahane believes that they’ve “cracked the code on bringing the anarchic world of Borderlands to the big screen in a big way that will be a fresh, compelling, and cinematic event for moviegoers and fans of the game”. We’ll just see about that, Kahane. Game-to-film adaptations have been notoriously hit-and-miss over the years unless they involve fluffsome main characters. It’s not clear, yet, if this will be an entirely new story or one based on the games we’ve played already.
In the original Borderlands, set in a distant future where mega corporations control various planets for their resources, extreme wildlife forces Atlas Corporation off Pandora, a feral planet rumoured to hide an ancient Vault full of advanced alien technology. They then leave it for Dahl Corporation to colonise via masses of convict labour. Atlas returns with an invading force once they discover that Dahl has found proof of the Vault’s existence. Rather than fight, Dahl abandons Pandora, taking all the wealthy inhabitants with it and setting the convict workforce free to terrorise those who were left behind – Mad Max-style. Enter the Vault Hunters, badass mercenaries with exceptional, sometimes magic, abilities who want the contents of the Vault all to themselves, but dabble in heroism on the side.
I really hope they keep the, surprisingly inclusive, story details and characterisation that help elevate Borderlands above the average looter shooter, but I have a feeling this will be more spectacle than substance. Not that I’m not into spectacle.
Via The Verge.