While video game adaptions rarely work, this doesn’t stop from Hollywood from trying, but the tide
may turn with the Michael Fassbender donning the hood for next years Assassin’s Creed and a possible Tom Hardy starring Splinter Cell on the horizon. Now, video game fans have another bright light to look towards, with Lionsgate announcing plans to develop the chaotic, and absolutely hilarious, first person shooter Borderlands as a possible new franchise, with the father-son team of Avi Arad (Iron Man, Spider-Man) and Ari Arad on board as producers.
For those of you not in the know, Borderlands is set on the backwater planet of Pandora, where several mega corporations have set up shop looking to uncover the vast alien vaults, and the untold power that resides within them, for their own gain. The series follows a rag tag group of rebels who resist these corporations plans for the planet, mainly the evil Hyperion and its insane president Handsome Jack. Owing quite a bit of inspiration to Mad Max (the third game, The Pre-Sequel, wears this inspiration on it’s sleeve, and is probably the most Australian game you will ever play), the series’ style straddles the line between post apocalyptic and futuristic western, and carries with an amazing amount of fun, irreverent humour, and manic energy.
There is no doubt Lionsgate are looking for a new franchise to replace The Hunger Games, and while this R rated series may not have the mass appeal of Katniss’ fight against the Capitol, there is plenty of potential for fun and heavily stylised new action franchise. They said it themselves with this statement in the press release, “The Borderlands games don’t pull any punches, and we’ll make the movie with the same in-your-face attitude that has made the series a blockbuster mega-franchise”. Hopefully, this isn’t just for show and the studio won’t neuter this big screen adaption as the over the top violence and dark humour is what makes Borderlands stand out from all the other FPS’ that saturate the video game market (one mission has you calling a guy a dick). This movie could easily be billed as a comedy take on Mad Max, and I bet there is quite a lot of you out there that would pay good money to see that.
