Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick would like you to give the new Borderlands movie “a chance” because “a lot of people worked really hard on it”.
Zelnick was asked about the film’s less-than-stellar early reviews during yesterday’s Q1 earnings call, and whilst he called the “look and the feel” of the movie “terrific”, Zelnick told IGN its performance “wouldn’t have a financial impact” on Take-Two or, indeed, the Borderlands franchise itself.
“Let’s give the film a chance. A lot of people worked really hard on it,” Zelnick said.
“The underlying intellectual property is phenomenal, the cast is amazing, I think the look and feel is really terrific. So let’s see what audiences have to say.
“But to answer your question, no, the performance of the film wouldn’t have a financial impact on us or on the franchise one way or another.”
The Borderlands movie has, of course, been in the works for some time now. It was initially announced back in 2015 before utterly vanishing. Just as it looked like the project was dead and buried, Gearbox re-announced it in February 2020, this time with Hostel director Eli Roth at the helm.
Since then, the high-profile likes of Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Gina Gershiwn, Kevin Hart, and Jack Black all signed onto the project, giving fans at least some hope it wouldn’t entirely suck.
But then came the reviews and… well, as Matt summarised for us yesterday, the early impressions are not great, with critics lamblasting the live-action film adaptation of Gearbox’s looter-shooter as everything from a “huge misfire” to a “disaster”.