Every few years, Hollywood takes another chance on video game adaptations. This time, it's looking at Borderlands. The post-apocalyptic shooter is having its space western world transformed into a movie for Lionsgate, the studio behind the Hunger Games franchise. Avi Arad and Ari Arad are on board as producers, which tells you at least one thing: this movie should be big. The Arads are pretty much exclusively behind blockbuster films, some — like Iron Man and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man — better than others — like Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic Four (2015), and Marc Webb's Amazing Spider-Man.
Lionsgate wants Borderlands for its existing audience
Lionsgate says that it wants to maintain the series' irreverent humor and energy, but it's not really clear where the film will take the property beyond that. For now, Lionsgate and Gearbox, the game's developer, are basically just saying that this is a fitting partnership: Borderlands gets more exposure as a property, and Lionsgate gets an existing fanbase to appeal to. "Part of our strategy in entering the game space under [former Nerdist CEO] Peter Levin has been to source new brands with built-in audiences that will translate into great films and television shows," Lionsgate says in a statement.
More than 26 million copies of Borderlands games have shipped since it began in 2009, with 8 million alone shipping during the studio's last fiscal year. Basically, there should be a big audience excited to see this movie; now Lionsgate just needs to make it more exciting than the average video game movie so that others will be interested, too. No timeline has been given for the film's release.
Correction: Peter Levin was formerly Nerdist's CEO; he was not a co-founder.