In the wake of Mad Max: Fury Road being such a huge hit, it was probably inevitable Hollywood would look for similar ideas to put out there. And Borderlands is essentially Mad Max, But Funny, so it’s headed to the big screen.
For those unfamiliar, the Borderlands games take place on Pandora, a desolate hellhole of a planet packed with wildlife that wants to violently murder you in creative ways. Thanks to bad mining practices and the general hostility of the environment, it also has this odd tendency to trigger genetic mutations and drive people insane. If that weren’t bad enough, the general lack of resources means banditry is a way of life. But since this hellhole also happens to be the final resting place of a vast and mysterious alien civilization, the planet is crawling with self-described Vault Hunters, looking for a mythical resting place full of bizarre technology. Basically, it’s as if an entire planet were populated by the Florida Man Twitter feed.
The game was originally supposed to be deadly serious, but, thankfully, that was soon chucked out the window. So, instead, it’s a ridiculously violent cartoon, the kind of game where there’s no such thing as overkill and everybody explodes into big clumps of gore. In other words, perfect material for an R-rated action comedy.
The production team behind it at Lionsgate would be Avi and Ari Arad, who you might remember helped launch the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As to whether or not we’ll ever see this movie… good question. A production deal does not translate into an actual movie, and one would imagine a lot depends on movies like Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell, and how they do at the box office. Either way, the movie should make a point of hiring the right music supervisor. At the very least, the movie deserves an awesome soundtrack to go with the various great songs in the games.
(via Gearbox Software)