“On Borderlands, nearly everything that could go wrong did go wrong: it sat on the shelf for “On Borderlands, nearly everything that could go wrong did go wrong: it sat on the shelf for too long during the pandemic, and reshoots and rising interest rates took it outside the safety zone of our usual strict financial models,” Feltheimer said. With a budget of around $120 million, Borderlands stands to lose the studio a lot of money. Although Lionsgate did mitigate some of the risks by selling foreign rights, sources told Deadline that Borderlands could still lose as much as $30 million. “The success of our financial models doesn’t take the place of also getting the creative right,” Feltheimer added long during the pandemic, and reshoots and rising interest rates took it outside the safety zone of our usual strict financial models,” Feltheimer said. With a budget of around $120 million, Borderlands stands to lose the studio a lot of money. Although Lionsgate did mitigate some of the risks by selling foreign rights, sources told Deadline that Borderlands could still lose as much as $30 million. “The success of our financial models doesn’t take the place of also getting the creative right,” Feltheimer added
That quote is very mangled.
“Accountant uses numbers to explain why creative work was bad”
I think it would be much more interesting to hear from the writers/directors/actors on why it was bad.
“The success of our financial models doesn’t take the place of also getting the creative right,”
I read it as saying they didn’t take the creative angle correctly and that was part of the failure despite happy looking financial models.
Yup, that’s how I read the quote as well, but most of the article is banging on about the financials, which makes sense given its a statement to shareholders, but its kinda meaningless for everyone else.
Whenever they say “the studio mitigated it’s losses”, that just means they sold the rights to others who then lost money because the movie bombed, it’s not like the studio conjured it out of thin air, and all the foreign rights deals are with partner companies the studio will be looking to sell other rights to other movies to in the future, won’t those rights partners look for a discount after taking the rights to failures and finding them less than worthless, lots of moving parts
As a gamer, I can say for certain that most gamers were not looking for a Borderlands movie to be made. There are SO many better games that could have a movie made out of them. An RPG stuck on rails is not going to surprise or delight anybody.
Honestly I think that a well made Borderlands movie would be hugely entertaining. I mostly had issue with a lot of the creative choices.
I would agree. I’d personally love to see an animated series using the games art style. Either one could be done so well if the studios would stop making all their movies basically the same using actors who really don’t have the energy needed for the rolls.
A far cry movie ovwr throwing a dictator would be fire ngl
There was a director a while back, Uwe Boll, who managed to get the rights to several video games and made bad films out of all of them.
One of them was Far Cry, being that old, it’s based on the first game.
Uwe suck my Bolls, a fraud who did shitty movies on purpose in order to abuse German tax law loopholes that allowed for legal tax evasion
I’m surprised he managed to get hold of so many video game licences. All the films were awful.
Wow. I mean like a proper mainstream film. The budget on this one is 30 mill according to tmdb, idk if that’s true.
I’m really looking forward to the adaptation of Space Invaders. I don’t see what could go wrong.
Is there even a story to the Borderland games? I’ve only played a few hours, but it basically seemed to just be “shoot weirdos in the desert”. Where they hoping to rival Mad Max or something?
The second one has an ok story and great comedy writing. However it’s clever writing that often only works if you are playing the game.
The Claptrap birthday quest is hilarious but can only work if you are the player. The anoying robot throws himself a birthday party and assigns you to deliver the invitations and get the pizza.
A timer flashes on screen and all the locations are marked on the map. So a standard hit all the locations before the timer runs out mission.
Only the timer doesn’t start but you probably don’t notice or think it starts after the first location. You deliver the invitations and each person declines.
You return with the pizza and then the timer starts. The timer is for how long you have to stay at the party as the only person who shows up.
One of the saddest yaaaay as well.
There is, and it’s actually kinda cool if a bit simple.
There’s the vaults, the sirens, and the ancient aliens. There’s the unusual planet of Pandora, the different factions, and the corps. There’s all the different characters all with backstory.
So yes, there’s enough material to make a decent movie with. But like so many video game movie adaptations the writer just phones in a generic script without honoring the source material. Even the casting choices were a mess. Lilith is supposed to be in her twenties so getting Cate Blanchett to play her just came off as wrong even if Cate is a good actress.
Movies based on video games are a tricky proposition and are usually hit or miss with audiences. You may have a built-in crowd with those familiar with the game, but the you’re introducing yourself to everyone else.
Next, you have to tell a story that makes sense and works within the allotted time.
Direction is important. If it’s a tech-heavy project, you need someone that can handle action, effects, and stunts.
Ideally you cast those who not only can act, but are also believable in their roles.
Unfortunately this movie falters on all the above. The story doesn’t quite work. The actors are miscast. There’s multiple directors on this one, as there were reshoots years later.
Reshoots are not necessarily a bad thing, as you can go in and fix issues. It’s unclear what was changed and if it was for the better. There are some bad scenes.
Borderlands is a movie where you possibly question how it got made at all. It’s a bit of a mess.
The casting killed it before anything else could.
