Hostel and Knock Knock director, Eli Roth, will helm the upcoming Borderlands movie, with Chernobyl writer Craig Mazin penning the latest draft and the pairing of Avi Arad and Ari Arad producing.
Roth was revealed as the director by Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford, who will be an executive producer on the Lionsgate project along with Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick. In the tweet, Pitchford welcomed Roth to the project while also teasing more information to come at Gearbox's Main Theatre Show at PAX East on February 27.
I’m very excited to welcome Eli Roth as Director of the Borderlands movie in development with Lionsgate and Arad Productions. Please welcome @EliRoth to the team and be sure to catch the @GearboxOfficial Main Theater Show at #PAXEast on 2/27 to learn more. #borderlandsmovie pic.twitter.com/Uaxs7jm10i
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) February 20, 2020
"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," Roth said in a statement. "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."
Although there's no scheduled release date yet, Borderlands will be hot on the heels of the Uncharted film, which finally begins shooting next month. It's also being produced at a time where video game adaptations are doing well at the box office, with Sonic The Hedgehog and Detective Pikachu both breaking records.
Borderlands 3 launched in September last year, bringing with it the familiar engrossing loop of looting and shooting. Critic Jordan Ramée called it a "humorous tall tale of misfits looting and shooting their way to heroism," in our 8/10 review for Borderlands 3.