The Borderlands film’s journey began with script work in 2012 and ended with its theatrical release on August 9, 2024—roughly a dozen years later. That span was not a decade of filming: a retrospective from Epic Games Store says more than half of development went to working through the script and the challenge of turning a sprawling, interactive game franchise into one linear movie. The available accounts document comments from director Eli Roth, Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford and producer Ari Arad, alongside a separate cast feature; they do not establish that the stars gave one exclusive interview recounting the entire decade.
Why did the Borderlands movie take so long?
The earliest script work reportedly began in 2012, before a writer was brought on to adapt the games. Epic Games Store’s retrospective describes more than half of the roughly twelve-year development period as work on the script and its central problem: converting a large, procedural, open-world franchise into a finite, plot-driven, non-interactive film. The roughly twelve years refer to the project’s journey through release, not to production or filming alone. Epic Games Store’s retrospective also reports that Craig Mazin’s core story concept remained part of the film’s foundation, although he did not receive final screenplay credit.
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Eli Roth was attached to direct by 2019. The retrospective links his selection to his ability to combine humor and danger, as well as his interest in the franchise’s expansive visual world. In 2020, the production was publicly discussed as approaching filming: Pitchford called the PAX East announcement “ground zero” before the team went to Budapest to prepare. He later spent time there during filming, amid COVID restrictions.
From script work to production
- 2012: Early script work reportedly began.
- By 2019: Roth was attached to direct.
- 2020: The project was publicly approaching production; the team prepared in Budapest.
- August 9, 2024: The film opened theatrically, according to Entertainment Tonight’s release-period feature.
How did the video game become a movie?
The adaptation had to preserve what made Borderlands recognizable without asking a film to reproduce the experience of playing it. Games invite exploration, repeated combat, player choice and discovery across a broad world; a movie has a fixed runtime and one authored sequence of events. The creative accounts describe a solution built around translating the franchise’s world, characters and themes into a new story, rather than trying to compress the games’ full scale into a screenplay.
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Roth put the distinction plainly: “As I told Ari and Randy Pitchford and everyone at the beginning, my job is to make an adaptation of the game—not a recreation of the game.” His approach included deepening characters and changing elements that worked interactively but could not sustain a 90-minute film. At the same time, he wanted certain locations—including Sanctuary City and Moxie’s Bar—to look as they did in the games. The feature describes Easter eggs in set details, posters, flyers, graffiti and a Gearbox-related license plate. These remarks appear in a separate feature on adaptation and the film’s connection to the games: GamesRadar+’s interview with Roth and Pitchford.
Recognizable world, newly shaped story
The production’s physical environments were part of that translation. Epic Games Store reports that studio interiors included Sanctuary City and Moxie’s Bar, with another studio set for Tannis’s lab, while outdoor filming took place around Budapest. Gearbox developers worked with film departments on the franchise’s distinctive guns and visual effects. This collaboration helped carry visual elements from the games into a medium where the audience watches rather than explores.
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Roth also described learning the franchise from its creators: “Directing Borderlands, luckily, I had the creators to take me through the game and years and years of Borderlands lore,” he told Entertainment Tonight. The feature reported that Kevin Hart undertook an extensive “education” in the game as well.
Is the Borderlands movie based on the same story as the game?
No. The film draws on the games’ universe, characters, themes and some plot points, but it does not claim to tell the same storyline or share exactly the same canon. Pitchford said: “It’s adapting the characters, the universe, the themes, and even the same plot points—but not the exact plot points, not the storylines.” He also argued that viewers should still have a reason to play the games after seeing the movie. That distinction frames the film as another entry point into Borderlands, not a replacement for the game experience. Pitchford’s comments on continuity make the separation explicit.
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What is the film about, and who is in the cast?
The official synopsis describes the movie as based on the Gearbox and 2K game franchise. Lilith (Cate Blanchett), an outlaw with a mysterious past, returns to Pandora to find the missing daughter of Atlas (Edgar Ramírez). Her team includes Roland (Kevin Hart), Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), Krieg (Florian Munteanu), Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Claptrap (Jack Black). The official film synopsis provides the premise and character lineup.
Epic Games Store reports that Roth first approached Blanchett after working with her on The House with a Clock in Its Walls, imagining Lilith as a tough, wry action lead. Jack Black was enthusiastic about voicing Claptrap because he already knew the game and character. Pitchford described Hart’s Roland as a straight-man presence among more chaotic characters, and said Hart took the part partly to show his action-star range.
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- Bazillions of guns: rocket-launching shotguns, enemy-torching revolvers, smgs that Fire Lightning rounds, and tons more.
- Radical art style: traditional rendering combined with hand-drawn textures give Borderlands its iconic style.
- Intense vehicular combat: behind the wheel, engage in frenetic vehicle-to-vehicle combat.
- Co-op frenzy: online or together on the couch, tear through enemies as a Crew of up to 4.
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What did the cast and filmmakers say about making Borderlands?
The available coverage is not one verified, all-cast account of the entire decade-long process. Epic Games Store’s retrospective provides the fullest development history through comments from Roth, Pitchford and Arad. Entertainment Tonight separately published a behind-the-scenes cast feature and reported on Hart’s preparation. Those accounts support a picture of a production that drew on creator knowledge and franchise lore, but they do not confirm the exact “stars recount” exclusive framing or establish that every cast member described the full development journey.
Franchise scale is also described differently by two release-period sources. Epic Games Store called Borderlands an 85-million-unit hit in its 2024 retrospective, while Entertainment Tonight reported more than 100 million copies sold across the franchise in 2024. The wording and attribution differ, so the figures should not be treated as one verified current total.
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In a 2026 retrospective report, GamesRadar+ gave the film a worldwide gross of $33 million and a Rotten Tomatoes score of 10% as of that report. Those are time-sensitive snapshots, not a permanent measure of reception. Roth offered a later explanation of the production climate, telling Variety, “As things grow bigger, studios just naturally become more risk averse.” He added of the result, “You got something that belonged to nobody.” These are Roth’s retrospective views; they do not by themselves establish a single cause for the film’s performance. GamesRadar+’s 2026 report quotes him and gives the reported figures.
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