The blockbuster first-person shooter videogame "Borderlands" is going to the big screen which will be produced by Lionsgate.
Released in 2009, "Borderlands" has sold 26 million copies worldwide, with eight million coming from the 2015 fiscal year sales alone which ended in March. The game was created by Gearbox Software and published by Take-Two Interactive Software under the 2K Label. Set in the planet called Pandora, gamers are given the task of taming the wild frontiers of the sci-fi universe abandoned by a large corporation just before the game begins.
According to Variety, producers Avi and Ari Rad of big time movie franchises "Iron Man," "Spider Man," "X-Men," "Ghost Rider," and "The Amazing Spiderman" will be at the helm of the project. Consequently, Lionsgate named Peter Levin, the CEO of Nerdist Industries, president of interactive ventures and games in 2014. This was seen as a big move by Lionsgate into video games.
"Part of our strategy in entering the game space under Peter Levin has been to source new brands with built-in audiences that will translate into great films and television shows," said Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger, co-chairs of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group. The announcement came just three months before the last "Hunger Games" movie will be released.
Meanwhile, Forbes reported that the announcement to turn "Borderlands" into a live action film has been met with skepticism due to the fact that movie adaptations of video games rarely duplicate the success of their original iterations. The issue about the game's concept being ripped off from a short film called "CodeHunters" was also raised. The biggest draw of a "Borderlands" movie is the bevy of quirky and memorable characters from the video game which makes good fodder for speculations about the actors who will possibly play them on the big screen.
