Lionsgate Partners With Take-Two for Game-Themed 'Borderlands' Movie

28 Aug, 2015 By: Erik Gruenwedel

---

Lionsgate is expanding its movie portfolio beyond teen franchises, superheroes and board games. The studio Aug. 28 announced a deal with Take-Two Interactive to adapt Gearbox Software’s video game Borderlands into a major feature film.

The sci-fi actioner has shipped more than 26 million copies around the world since its launch in 2009, including 8 million copies during T2’s current fiscal year.

Lionsgate will partner with producers Avi and Ari Arad, who have worked on Marvel’s Iron Man, The Amazing Spider-Man, X-Men, Ghost Rider and Blade.

“The 'Borderlands' games don’t pull any punches, and we’ll make the movie with the same in-your-face attitude that has made the series a blockbuster mega-franchise,” Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger, co-chairs of the Lionsgate motion picture group, said in a statement.

The mini-major in May hired Peter Levin as president of interactive ventures and games. Levin, who most-recently headed digital media company Nerdist Industries, consulted for Japanese media giant Yoshimoto Kogyo, MAG Interactive and Rovio Entertainment — whose brands include “Angry Birds.”

“Part of our strategy in entering the game space … has been to source new brands with built-in audiences that will translate into great films and television shows,” Friedman and Wachsberger said. 

Indeed, Lionsgate, which has generated blockbuster movie franchises such as "The Twilight Saga," "The Hunger Games" and "The Divergent Series," recently announced plans for separate feature films surrounding the “Power Rangers” TV series and Monopoly board game.

The studio recently pushed back by six months the theatrical release of the “Rangers” movie until Jan. 13, 2017.

 

Bookmark it: