Lionsgate offered up a first look at upcoming video game adaptation Borderlands during CinemaCon this week – and according to those who were there in attendance, it promises to be a colourful, star-studded affair.
Per The Hollywood Reporter (opens in new tab), the one-minute clip opens with Cate Blanchett’s Lilith, a character lifted straight from the source material, brandishing a gun and wearing a “fire-engine-red wig”. She then scraps her way through a vibrant cityscape, before Kevin Hart’s mercenary Roland makes a brief appearance.
The teaser ends with Jack Black’s robot Claptrap taking an unexpected bullet from Lilith’s blaster.
Little is known about the movie, which has been directed by Eli Roth, so far. We do know, however, that Blanchett, Hart and Black will be joined on screen by the likes of American Horror Story (opens in new tab)‘s Cheyenne Jackson, Haley Bennett, Janina Gavankar, Edgar Ramirez, Florian Munteanu, Bobby Lee, Haley Bennett, Gina Gershon, and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Love and Monsters (opens in new tab)‘ Ariana Greenblatt is also on board as 13-year old explosives expert Tiny Tina.
In June 2021, Borderlands took to social media to share a black-and-white image of Blanchett’s Lilith, but as she was lit from behind, you could only see her silhouette. Still, there was no mistaking the siren-like fighter’s hair swish, shoulder pads, gun holsters and combat boots.
“With me around, you might actually get somewhere,” it captioned the photo.
Curtis (opens in new tab), who’s set to play Tannis, admitted to taking the sneaky behind-the-scenes snap on Instagram around about the same time Borderlands uploaded it on Twitter.
“Welcome to BORDERLANDS and a secret BTS shot I took of Lilith, our legendary heroine, psycho-blasting, vault-hunting vixen with a bad attitude and two Oscars to add to the baddasery in her tool belt, the once and future Queen of EVERYTHING,” she wrote, before promising to post more “if you’re nice” and the studio doesn’t fire her.
“Soon you will get to see the amazing mix of adventure and badonkadonk action and comedy from the brilliant minds of [director Eli Roth] and game creator Randy Pitchford.”
Borderlands will be released sometime in 2022. While we wait, check out our roundup of the best action movies for some viewing inspiration.