The rise of video game adaptations is very much upon us, and with that, hits such as “Sonic the Hedgehog,” “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” and “Minecraft”.
Then there’s Eli Roth’s “Borderlands”. The box-office bomb cost $145M to produce and ended up finishing its run with a total of just $31M worldwide in receipts. The film was reportedly a $115M loss for Lionsgate.
The reviews were nasty — it scored a 10% on Rotten Tomatoes — but anyone who followed the pre-release drama saw this coming. The film started production in 2021, using a screenplay Roth had co-written with Craig Mazin (“The Last of Us”), but then underwent extensive reshoots with “Deadpool” helmer Tim Miller taking over for Roth as director.
Roth initially blamed the film’s final outcome on COVID-related delays, but he’s now addressing the tougher questions, claiming that the released version was not the film he intended to make. Despite criticism of the script and his overly stylized direction, he ultimately places the blame on Lionsgate.
Speaking with Variety, Roth admits not recognizing the cut that was released to his own, claiming the studio executives wanted “Borderlands” to have a PG-13 rating, and asked for changes to get it. In the end, the released version of the film was “something that belonged to nobody,” Roth said.
It’s not a kids’ movie, but it’s trying to appeal to everybody. It’s for gamers, but it doesn’t have the violence the gamers want because it can’t be that extreme because it costs too much. You just wind up with a movie that’s neither fish nor fowl.
Now, let’s be very clear here — there is nothing in “Borderlands” that even hints at a better movie if it were rated R. Roth’s defense is laughable. The finished product doesn’t suggest that a harder rating would have solved its fundamental problems. The performances are flat, the humor rarely lands, the world-building feels strangely lifeless, and the story is dull.
Reshoots for “Borderlands” occurred in early Summer 2022. The movie was test-screened in November of that year and that led to Lionsgate calling for more work to be done on the film.
Mazin had officially removed his name from the project, replaced by one Joe Crombie. There was much speculation that Mazin had used Crombie as a pseudonym to distance himself from the film. However, Mazin has repeatedly denied these rumors.
Other writers who were hired to do rewrites on “Borderlands” include Gary Ross, Aaron Berg, Oren Uziel, Juel Taylor, Tony Rettenmaier, Zak Olkewicz, Chris Bremner and … Sam Levinson! “Joe Crombie” could be any of them, but my money is still on Mazin.
The box-office bomb cost $145M to produce and ended up finishing its run with a total of just $31M worldwide in receipts. The film was reportedly a $115M for Lionsgate.