Variety are reporting today that Cate Blanchett “is in talks to star as Lilith in Lionsgate’s ‘Borderlands,’ an adaptation of the popular video game”. This is sad and terrible news.
If you missed the announcement back in February, Eli Roth is directing an adaptation of Gearbox’s shooters, and between his involvement and the series’ trademark “humour” of late the prospects for this movie being physically excruciating to sit through couldn’t have been better.
But then along comes this report. Adding an actor like Blanchett to the project would be a coup, as one of the biggest hurdles video game movies face is overcoming the idea that respectable Hollywood types, whether they be behind or in front of the camera, often want little to do with them.
But Cate Blanchett? As Lilith? That would be amazing! For Gearbox and Lionsgate, who are making the movie, at least.
For me, as someone who doesn’t like Borderlands but does like Cate Blanchett, this would be a tragedy. Blanchett is a national treasure, and she is, quite frankly, better than this.
And I say that with the full recognition that aside from winning Academy Awards she has also seen fit to appear in nerd adaptations like Lord of the Rings and Thor (both of which she crushed), along with the 2008 Indiana Jones movie we collectively seem unable to forget.
A lot of reports from industry sites like Variety end up becoming a formality, just a part of the formal announcement process, but this is one bit of news I hope an agent has to come out and say wasn’t true.