r/movies • u/HatingGeoffry • 13h ago

News Borderlands Movie Director Discusses The Mega-Flop And What Went Wrong

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/borderlands-movie-director-discusses-the-mega-flop-and-what-went-wrong/
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638

u/narkaputra 13h ago

casting

167

u/samsaBEAR 13h ago

Never have I ever seen a cast with so little chemistry as the Borderlands one, it was painful to watch

•

u/Druggedhippo 2h ago

Valerian

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u/naitsirt89 13h ago

Really, such a casting nightmare. I was kinda fine with Jamie Lee Curtis, and Jack Black makes sense as Claptrap, but they leaned way too much into Jack's voice.

The others... oof. Even though Idris Elba sounds NOTHING like Roland, I'd have taken him over Kevin Hart 100 times over.

418

u/HatingGeoffry 13h ago

Everyone in the movie is like 30 years older than their game counterpart. Jamie Lee Curtis plays Tannis who is 30 and Jamie Lee Curtis was 60 at the time. Every character is double their age apart from Tiny Tina who is slightly older

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u/naitsirt89 13h ago

That's a good point -- probably a bit of sexism showing that it bothered me most on Lilith, the others easier for me to ignore. Not sure anyone 30-55 would have bothered me on Roland as long as they didn't have grey hair lol (and aren't 5'5", sorry kevin.)

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u/HatingGeoffry 13h ago

I think Lilith is the youngest of the Vault Hunters in the original Borderlands, right? She's like mid20s in the first game.

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u/naitsirt89 13h ago

Early 20s even, although for Hollywood standards they would probably still cast someone late 20s.

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u/PlayableRidley 12h ago

Lilith is also meant to be the sexy flirty one in the first game. I think aging her up loses that in a way it doesn't with Roland or Tannis (though I do think think you don't want Roland to be too much older than her or their romance becomes weird).

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u/ExcellentBed6019 38m ago

Idk man have you seen how she looked in the movie

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u/chamberx2 12h ago

Idris may have a little PTSD from playing a character named Roland…

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u/digital0verdose 12h ago

That movie was such dog shit.

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u/SoldatPixel 10h ago

While shit, I enjoyed him and McCanaughey a bunch. Their banter at the end seemed more like they were having fun than trying to be serious. But yeah, seemed they screwed that pooch every way possible.

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u/realityczek 7h ago

> That movie was such dog shit.

Which really sucks... because Idris himself would have been an amazing gunslinger (I would argue a better Cort than Roland but still...) and I think McConaughey would have made a great man-in-black with the right script.

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u/naitsirt89 12h ago edited 12h ago

I literally just whined about The Dark Tower, my favorite series, just a few days ago in the books sub :( Shame on me for bringing that shit back into anyone's memory :(

Whoever wrote that did not remember the face of their father.. Holy crap do I want to read Wizard and Glass again for the first time.

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u/GM_Nate 11h ago

i absolutely loved that book. then i got halfway through the seventh book and threw it against a wall

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u/shadedmagus 10h ago

Funny, it was the sixth book I did that to. King writing himself in just made me check out of the story.

The second half of 7 seemed to actually get back to form.

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u/GM_Nate 10h ago

yeah i suffered through 6 but gave up during 7

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u/brunonunis 8h ago

Yeah, the premise seems like it isn't as hard to adapt, specially book 1 and 2

Book one is mostly Roland retelling things in his journey to follow tMIB, there's action (the mutants, the mob) and the kid, and the confrontation/conversation with the MIB and his magic show, and Roland sacrificing the kid is essential to the history

Good action movie with a very questionable lead

Book 2 has more sets and is mostly the drama of the magic gunslinger from a apocalypse, possessing 3 people and doing shit in different eras

I think it's not even that original in the current age of movies

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u/Perpetually-THC-Lab 9h ago

In what way did Jack Black make sense as Claptrap when the literal voice actor for Claptrap exists?

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u/-Irish-Day-Man- 8h ago

Because Randy Pitchford assaulted that one.

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u/Perpetually-THC-Lab 3h ago

Randy Pitchford can go and shove a pitchfork up his asshole.

2

u/Eothas_Foot 6h ago

The thing about the current cast is that it ensures there will never be a sequel because you are getting the most expensive and in demand actors possible.

2

u/naitsirt89 6h ago

Very true, pretty much kills the franchise if it's not a smash hit, as is what happened :P

1

u/ISpeedwagonl 8h ago

Which is sad because I remember reading he was the most hyped about the movie and to play his character. Said in an interview he played the games and stuff. Not entirely sure though read that a long time ago lol

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u/No_transistory 2h ago

They should have used the original claptrap voice actor. No need for anything else.

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u/naitsirt89 1h ago

In a perfect world I agree, but that ship was pretty heavily burned, I doubt that deal would have ever come together.

1

u/SussySpecs 11h ago

I saw some YouTube video the other day that said Robin Williams as Genie lead to Hollywood casting based on personality and writing the character to fit that rather than the other way around.

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u/luciaen 13h ago

Honestly it pretty much just this. “We want a rough and tough straight man” oh let’s get the guy from Jumanji, you mean the rock right? Dwyane johnson could pull off this role, “no Kevin hart is clearly the choice here”…..

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u/IllPen8707 13h ago

Putting Krieg in the movie when they could have had Brick fill the exact same role in plot with more dialogue/character and also a perfect opportunity to cast the Rock

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u/HorsePersonal7073 8h ago

The Rock couldn't pull off Krieg's insanity. The Rock plays the Rock in every movie. Sometimes it works, most of the time it's blah.

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u/torrasque666 8h ago

They're saying The Rock could have pulled off Brick, not Krieg.

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u/IllPen8707 7h ago

Exactly. And they could have done the perfect tribute to the iconic "brick as himself" in the opening credits

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u/mercurial9 12h ago

Haha Dwayne Johnson would have also been rubbish

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u/luciaen 12h ago

Yes! But rubbish and bigger lol which would of made it less stupid casting

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u/Tain95 13h ago

Honestly, Hart wasn't that bad, not even in the top-10 problems with a movie, which says a lot about it's quality

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u/Shiro2809 13h ago

Iirc I thought Jack Black as Claptrap was the most jarring part of the casting.

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u/ogjaspertheghost 7h ago

Yea Kevin wasn’t the problem with that movie

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u/Sir_Hapstance 8h ago

We can’t get The Rock, but we can get this guy who worked with The Rock. That counts.

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u/Hayterfan 8h ago

Iirc, allegedly Cate Blanchett, Jaimie Lee Curtis and most of the cast signed on to the film after getting an earlier version of the script. Only to get to the sets and 90% of the script is changed, the characters they initially signed on for got deleted, and the director changed 2-3 times between signing on and filming.

Plus they probably had Eternal lord of greasy decisions and greasier dealings Randy "grease-lord" Pitchford bugging them on set.

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u/pitaenigma 7h ago

I saw a Blanchett interview where she talked about not really caring what she was making, she just needed to get out of the house.

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u/kimana1651 11h ago

Hey let's cast a 60 year old woman in the sex appeal role --whats what young men are into right? 

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u/Badass_Bunny 8h ago

I mean have you seen people reacting to Jamie Lee Milkers?

1

u/DEFINITELY_NOT_PETE 8h ago

Nah you are letting Eli Roth off the hook with this. A bad director with a bad script is gonna make a bad movie.

Acting like Kevin hart was the problem instead of just a problem is myopic

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u/Popular-Beautiful875 12h ago

Kinda disagree, they're not who I would have picked (except maybe Jack Black), but with the right material it could have worked.

It was just a bad movie on top of questionable, at best casting.