Jack Black is no stranger to both voice acting and video game adaptations, having brought Bowser to life in last year's The Super Mario Bros. Movie. In Borderlands later this year, he'll be seen – or heard, more accurately – as robot Claptrap, too, a character he describes as "an R-rated R2-D2".
While chatting about Kung Fu Panda 4 on an upcoming installment of the Inside Total Film podcast, Black takes some time out to tease what else he has in the pipeline. When Borderlands comes up, he says: "I love the voice acting. I also love that video game, so it was fun to be able to voice that character.
"He's a cool, fun, little turn, and another opportunity to bring a great video game to the silver screen," he continues. "We're kind of in the middle of a video game movie renaissance right now, and I'm stoked to be a part of it."
Directed by Eli Roth, Borderlands, which is inspired by the popular looter shooter video game of the same name, sees Black, Kevin Hart, and Cate Blanchett bring the likes of Claptrap, Roland, and Lilith to life, as the latter reluctantly returns to her home-planet of Pandora. There, she embarks on a treacherous mission to steal some treasure from a secret vault, alongside a bunch of newfound accomplices including the above, Tiny Tina (Barbie's Ariana Greenblatt), and Krieg (Florian Munteanu).
"I can't believe they haven't already started making a movie of any of the Rockstar Games – Grand Theft Auto, but especially Red Dead Redemption," Black goes on, when Inside Total Film asks which games he'd love to see get the Hollywood treatment. "Those things are already like movies, you know? I guess that's the thing. Some video games are already halfway there to telling those kind of stories, and there are some movies that are like video games.
"Did you ever see that Black Mirror motion picture called 'Bandersnatch' where you actually choose your own adventure at the end of scenes? It's like, 'Ooh, do you take the red pill or the blue pill?' I think we're moving in that way where there's going to be more combinations of video games and movies, and it's exciting. It's like the beginning of a new era."
Borderlands is set to release on August 9. Listen out for more of our chat with Black, on a future episode of the Inside Total Film podcast.
