'Borderlands' Casts Edgar Ramirez As Villain, First Plot Details Revealed
Eli Roth's Borderlands movie has found its villain.Edgar Ramirez (Carlos, Gold, the Point Break remake) will play a character named Atlas, who's described as "a business titan and arms manufacturer, and the most powerful person in the universe." The movie, which has been filming since the beginning of this month in Hungary, is based on the popular video game franchise – and Lionsgate has revealed the first official plot details for the film adaptation.
In a press release, Lionsgate announced that Edgar Ramirez is playing the Borderlands villain in the upcoming movie, which has a screenplay by two-time Emmy-winning screenwriter Craig Mazin (Chernobyl, HBO's upcoming adaptation of The Last of Us). The studio also unveiled the movie's official synopsis, which reads as follows:
Two-time Academy Award® winner Cate Blanchett teams up with Kevin Hart in director Eli Roth's Borderlands. Lilith (Blanchett), an infamous outlaw with a mysterious past, reluctantly returns to her home planet of Pandora to find the missing daughter of the universe's most powerful S.O.B., Atlas (Ramirez). Lilith forms an alliance with an unexpected team – Roland (Hart), a former elite mercenary, now desperate for redemption; Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), a feral pre-teen demolitionist; Krieg (Florian Munteanu), Tina's musclebound, rhetorically challenged protector; Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis), the scientist with a tenuous grip on sanity; and Claptrap (Jack Black), a persistently wiseass robot. These unlikely heroes must battle alien monsters and dangerous bandits to find and protect the missing girl, who may hold the key to unimaginable power. The fate of the universe could be in their hands – but they'll be fighting for something more: each other. Based on the game from Gearbox and 2K, one of the bestselling videogame franchises of all time, welcome to Borderlands.
"What an incredible honor to have an actor of Edgar's caliber, talent, and charisma playing opposite Cate Blanchett and this remarkable cast," Roth said in a statement. "Atlas has to be a truly magnetic personality, someone with charisma and charm but that air of menace underneath it all. I've been a fan of Edgar's since his early performances and he continues to amaze me with each dramatic turn. We want to create something wild, fun, and very different from anything they've seen from Edgar before. I am so, so excited to work with him."
Giving audiences a new perspective on his performers seems to be at the top of Roth's mind, since he's previously said that Kevin Hart will have a more straightforward dramatic role here instead of the wise-cracking sidekick he's often played on screen. From Roth's description, this role sounds a little bit like Demián Bechir's character in Godzilla vs. Kong: a powerful rich guy who will be chewing up the scenery while the action unfolds.
Lionsgate has not set a release date for Borderlands yet.