Borderlands Movie In Trouble As Celebrated Writer Removes Name From Script
If you’ve been following the development of the Borderlands movie, then you may understand that “production hell” barely describes the state of this video game adaptation. Despite finishing filming in 2021, the movie has been plagued by rewrites, reshoots, and the addition of new writers and even a new director.
Now, it gets worse. Kotaku reports that Craig Mazin (best known as the co-creator and co-writer of the hit HBO show The Last of Us) has decided to use a pseudonym, effectively removing himself from the script and credits.
Not sure why it’s a big deal that Mazin doesn’t want his name associated with the Borderlands film? While it’s impossible for us to know the writer’s exact motivations, using a pseudonym instead of your actual name is a longstanding Hollywood tradition for creators who don’t want their names attached to the final film because they think it will be horrible.
This tradition is robust. Directors have used the fake name Alan Smithee so much that his IMDB page is filled with some of the worst films in cinematic history.
Eli Roth was originally set to direct, but in 2023, it was announced that the film was getting reshoots under a new director, Tim Miller
Obviously, we’re hoping Borderlands is a bit better than those films, but its troubled production history has us very concerned. In terms of directors, horror icon Eli Roth was originally set to direct, but in 2023, it was announced that the film was getting reshoots under a new director, Tim Miller (best known for directing Deadpool).
While reshoots are sometimes necessary, a combination of reshoots and a new director well after the film finished shooting is usually a bad sign (just go watch Joss Whedon’s Justice League if you doubt us).
And while the addition of a new director for reshoots is particularly troubling, Borderlands has also had some creative shuffling of the writing team as well. Even though Eli Roth and “Joe Crombie” (Craig Mazin’s pseudonym) are still listed as writers, Zak Olkewicz was brought in to help write some new pages for Tim Miller. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg: over the film’s long, long production history, a full seven other writers have tried to bring this screenplay to life.
Historically, having this many writers is a very bad sign: when a Hollywood film has this many cooks in the kitchen, the final meal is rarely appetizing. And while it would be one thing if this movie had all the complex backstory and lore of something like Dune, it’s quite the opposite.
We love the original Borderlands game, but the story is very simple and straightforward, and the fact that the script has had 10 writers so far doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.
Still, it will be morbidly interesting to see if Borderlands is a predictable flop or an unexpected hit when (or perhaps if) it ever releases. A script at least partially written by the co-creator of The Last of Us and a film at least partially directed by the Deadpool director might actually be good, especially with talented actors like Cate Blanchett and Jack Black attached to it.
So far, though, there is very little about this troubled production to inspire confidence.
