Cate Blanchett will play the lead, Lilith, in the film adaptation of the Western-themed looter-shooter game, Borderlands. The trailer for the film dropped on Wednesday and fans couldn’t help but notice the similarity to James Gunn’s films. While the cast appears to be promising, there were several behind-the-scene issues with the film which fans doubt will affect the film’s quality. One particular promotion in the trailer for the producer of the film also irked the fans.
The film is produced by Avi Arad and Erik Feig under their production houses, Arad Productions and Picturestart. Arad served as the producer of several superhero films in the past and most of his recent projects were distributed by Sony.
Fans Are Not Happy With How Borderlands Trailer Acknowledged Its Producers
The Borderlands video game franchise received critical acclaim and became one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time. A film adaptation of the successful game franchise was announced by Lionsgate Films in August 2015, with Avi Arad producing (via Deadline). Erik Feig, who was the Lionsgate President at the time of the film’s announcement, joined the film as a producer in 2020 under his independent production company Picturestart.
After several production delays, Borderlands will hit theaters on August 9, 2024, nine years after its announcement. The recently-dropped trailer drew a comparison between the film and James Gunn‘s Guardians of the Galaxy films. However, some fans were not happy with how the trailer flexed the producer of the film, Avi Arad. Arad was mentioned as the “Producer of Uncharted, Spider-Man, and Venom” in the trailer.
One fan shared the description on X with the comment, “good lord”. Interestingly, Uncharted, Spider-Man, and Venom were all Sony movies which led many to believe that Borderlands was also a Sony film. The credits appear to have backfired for the producer, as Sony is on the receiving end of some harsh criticisms for Madame Web‘s colossal failure. While all three movies mentioned in the description were box office hits, a few fans had a particular dislike towards them as well.
While Arad has produced critically acclaimed movies for Sony like the Spider-Verse films, he is also the producer of Morbius, another box office disaster, and Kraven the Hunter. One fan also noted that the film put the titles instead of a name since they didn’t want to put Avi Arad’s name on the film. Several fan reactions read:
good lord pic.twitter.com/AoJbeIgUOV
— Neb | 🏳️🌈 (@NebsGoodTakes) February 21, 2024
they mean uncharted(the subway ad), spider-man(the musical), and venom(clean radio edit) specifically btw
— Neb | 🏳️🌈 (@NebsGoodTakes) February 21, 2024
That is not the flex they thought it is 💀
— Lachesis (@LachesisHD) February 21, 2024
It was already over but now it’s 6 feet under
— CTails (@TailsBoogaloo) February 21, 2024
That's the only thing that makes me kinda worried
— Kelson Khalazans (@ESheeiroso) February 21, 2024
They put this because you know they didn't wanna show Avi Arad's name
— Luna Silverhand (@2obama2netflix) February 21, 2024
The film has an ensemble cast including Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Ariana Greenblatt, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Edgar Ramírez. The film follows Blanchett’s Lilith, an infamous outlaw, who returns to her home planet Pandora and forms an alliance with an unexpected team.
Borderlands Underwent Several Script Changes Over The Years
Australian filmmaker and writer Leigh Whannell was in talks with Lionsgate to write and direct the film, however, he was dropped during the announcement. Aaron Berg was tasked with writing an R-rated script in 2016, but he too bowed out by 2018 passing on his duties to Oren Uziel. In 2020, Eli Roth was attached as the director of the film with The Last of Us creator Craig Mazin writing the screenplay (via Deadline).
However, by April 2021, Mazin’s script had been rewritten by Juel Taylor and Tony Rettenmaier. Roth also contributed to the script largely at this point, getting a screenplay credit for the movie. The film underwent two weeks of reshoots in January 2023, but Roth couldn’t return to direct the reshoots due to prior commitments. Tim Miller took over as the director, but Roth retained the sole directorial credit. Zak Olkewicz penned the pages for the reshoot. (via Deadline)
Mazin removed his name from the project last June due to undisclosed reasons and was replaced by Joe Crombie. Fans largely believed that it was Mazin’s pseudonym, however, he denied such reports (via Variety). At this point, fans really hope that the film was not spoiled by too many cooks. The film will hit theaters on August 9, 2024.
