It’s been a long time coming but the first trailer for Borderlands – director Eli Roth’s screen adaptation of the Gearbox-produced video game franchise – dropped today and IGN was lucky enough to have Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford, who’s also an Executive Producer on the movie, break it down for us. You can watch our breakdown with Pitchford via the player above or the embed below.
Pitchford made it clear from the outset that Borderlands is not merely a retelling of the existing games. “One of the cool things about the movie is we've created a cinematic universe that lives side by side with the video game universe. And of course, the characters are there and authentic in the themes and even some of the storylines. But they're independent storylines,” Pitchford said.
“So this isn't Borderlands 1. This isn't Borderlands 2. The Borderlands movie is the first of the Borderlands Cinematic Universe and you'll see some characters from some of the different parts of what you might know from the video games. But it also gives us an opportunity to get deeper and expand a little bit. You never met the CEO of the Atlas Corporation and you will meet that character for the first time in the Borderlands movie and his name is Deukalian Atlas.”
Edgar Ramirez plays Deukalian Atlas, a mogul even wealthier than Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, or Jeff Bezos combined. Pitchford jokingly recalled one note he gave Ramirez on set: “I said, ‘You've got to imagine that you've got a dick made out of three machine guns when you're in this scene.’ And I think he really liked that feedback.”
Whether it’s standing on an actual Runner that was built or being on the set of Fyrestone, there’s arguably no one more excited to see Borderlands become a tangible reality than Pitchford: “It's crazy to see all this work. You have no idea how long I've been working on this movie with an unbelievable team at Lionsgate, all the talented cast and crew.”
“We live only in a digital world at Gearbox, so it's pretty amazing to see stuff manifested,” Pitchford said. “So on the set, it's so impactful to me and so meaningful and emotional for me and the team that when we finished principal [photography] and we finished the reshoots talking to Lionsgate it's like, ‘Okay. We got all these props, we got all these costumes. What's going to happen to them?’ And I said, ‘You know what? I'll store them. I'll take them.’ … I just couldn't let it get thrown away. I don't know. It's just phenomenal that this stuff exists now in the real world and we've only imagined it digitally up to this point. So it's a beautiful thing.”
Pitchford summed up his fannish excitement for Borderlands becoming a reality with an anecdote about bringing some cosplayers over to Gina Gershon’s costume fitting as Mad Moxxi in Budapest. “I went over to talk to her and see how she felt and see how the costume was looking on her. And I brought some of the cosplayers with me, I think I had Jessica Nigri with me and a couple other people. And we went and looked at Moxxi and costume and we were just like, ‘Oh my God, it's real. It's real. It's happening.’ It was amazing. It was so amazing. And to be there with the cosplayers, to have them see Gina as Moxxi, it was a moment. It was a moment.”
Now Randy Pitchford and his fellow filmmakers are ready to share their live-action Borderlands with the world. Of Eli Roth’s film, Pitchford said, “We deal with some serious stuff and there's real human emotions and it's a story about the family you make instead of the family you're born with, and dealing with loyalty and allegiances and real stuff. There's real stuff in here. But it's also a comedy. We like to laugh and we like to have fun and we like it when the people that enjoy the entertainment we have to offer are having a fun time. So prepare to laugh. We got the gags.”
Borderlands opens in North America on August 9th and internationally this summer.
For more coverage from IGN Fan Fest 2024, read our digital cover story on the making of Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender watch an exclusive sneak peek of Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Two and find out how to watch IGN Fan Fest this weekend.
