Borderlands movie director Eli Roth wants "a little spice of Hostel" in the film

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I say again, expect people to explode in this movie

After a premature and hastily deleted announcement, Gearbox confirmed that Eli Roth will direct the upcoming Borderlands movie at its PAX East show. Roth took to the stage to briefly discuss his plans for the film, and while details are scarce at this stage, Roth did clue us in on the film's tone and timeline. 

"It is a mad, insane family," Roth said of the Gearbox team. "It is great when you have [CEO Randy Pitchford], [Craig Mazin] who wrote Chernobyl, and you can put a little spice of Hostel in there. I'm so excited to do something. I think the movie's going to be great. We're just getting started, so there's nothing to share yet."

"I've noticed there are a few cosplayers in the audience," he continues. "I get to write a character and see them, but for Randy, he writes it and it's digital and then you see them. But seeing you guys in real life is really firing up my brain for the movie. Something I want to do - and I don't know how we're gonna pull this off because we haven't picked where we're going to shoot it - but I want to find the craziest cosplayers and most psycho Psychos around the world, and I want to kill them in the movie. 

"I don't want to just put them in the movie like, 'Oh, there's a cosplayer.' I want something horrible crushing you, or some awful death, because for the super fans of the game to not only live in it and be in it, but when we get to actually build a world, we want to find people around the world and bring them in and just maim them, just do horrible things to them. It's going to be a long road before we get there, but there's no better way to kick it off." 

So, a few key points. The Borderlands movie will have at least "a little spice of Hostel," Roth's famously gory flick. It will also benefit from Mazin's input, which is mighty promising after the runaway success of the Chernobyl miniseries. It hasn't started filming yet, nor have Roth and the folks at Lionsgate picked a location yet. And it may feature some well-known cosplayers as Psycho extras, who will invariably be killed horribly. Yeah, that tracks. 

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Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.