The movie business has been getting pretty serious lately about making films based on games we already have Warcraft and Assassin’s Creed movies on the way, and even Nintendo is thinking seriously about movies based on its games. Now they will be joined by Borderlands, being created by a partnership between game developer Gearbox Software and Lionsgate Films.
“We believe that we’ve brought together the right partners, the ideal creative team and the perfect property to launch a new motion picture tentpole for a global audience,” Lionsgate Motion Picture Group co-chairs Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement. The deal was negotiated by Lionsgate’s Peter Levin and Patricia Laucella, along with Summit Entertainment’s Geoff Shaevitz.
The Borderlands franchise has sold over 26 million copies since launching in 2009, and those numbers sound pretty attractive to filmmakers. The adaptation will be spearheaded by veteran Avi Arad and his son Ari Arad, whose credits include Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men and more. “Borderlands has a unique story-driven narrative energy and rich multi-dimensional characters that position it to become a singular motion picture event,” the Arads said in a statement.
Will we be seeing more movies made from successful video games That seems like a pretty solid bet, though of course we’ll have to see how the latest crop of movies turns out audiences. If they movies can attract any reasonable percentage of the gameplaying fan base, though, success seems well within reach.
