Cate Blanchett joins Eli Roth’s Borderlands movie
By Dan Selcke
Cate Blanchett is approaching living legend status. Viewers of a certain age may always remember her as Galadriel from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies, but she also rocked it in Elizabeth, earned two Academy Awards (for playing Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator and for the lead in Blue Jasmine), and just recently tore up the screen as Phyllis Schlafly in FX’s Mrs. America. At this point, she has the prestige to do whatever she wants.
So it comes as a little bit of a surprise that what she wants is to work with Eli Roth, who’s still mostly known for gory horror flicks like Hostel and Cabin Fever, on a movie version of Gearbox Software’s Borderlands series of video games.
On the other hand, she worked with Roth before on the PG fantasy The House with a Clock in Its Walls, and if she wants to do something fun, who I am to second guess her? And she was really good in the comic book movie Thor: Ragnarok as Hela, the goddess of death. Not everything has to be awards bait.
Anyway, the first Borderlands game is about a group of four raiders who explore the planet of Pandora and find a fragment of the key to a legendary Vault. The Vault Hunters have to find a way to open it before the corporation that used to occupy the planet can take it for themselves.
Blanchett with play Lilith, one of the Vault Hunters. A Siren from the planet Dionysus, she has a bunch of special abilities, including invisibility. Lilith is a recurring character throughout the series but makes her debut in the first game, making us think that’s the one screenwriter Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) used for inspiration.
“I’m so lucky to have the amazing Cate Blanchett starring in Borderlands,” Roth said. “We had the most incredible collaboration together on The House with a Clock in Its Walls, and I believe there’s nothing she can’t do. From drama to comedy and now action, Cate makes every scene sing. Working with her is truly a director’s dream come true, and I feel so fortunate that I get to do it again on an even bigger scale. Everyone brings their A-game to work with Cate, and I know together we’re going to create another iconic character in her already storied career.”
I mean, I will admit I’m a little more interested in seeing the Borderlands movie now.
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