IR Interview: Eli Roth For "Borderlands" [Summit/Lionsgate]

The Inside Reel

Writer/Director Eli Roth talks to The Inside Reel about tone, approach, inspiration and technique in regards to his videogame film adaptation: "Borderlands" from Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate.

Transcript

00:00Ah!

00:13Here they come!

00:23What the window up?

00:24I don't want to!

00:27It's pink.

00:28It's in my mouth!

00:31Can we get a bullet?

00:32Can we get a bullet?

00:33Big bullet coming!

00:42How are we gonna get through this?

00:52We've talked about tone before

00:54and basically how that has to be modulated

00:56both visually but also in directing.

00:59I believe last time you were talking about

01:01how you had to sort of talk to Kate certain ways.

01:04Here it's a completely different monster.

01:06Could you talk about sort of conducting this one

01:09since it is such a sort of larger scale

01:11with a lot more special effects and stuff like that?

01:14Yeah, look, the tone of the game is it's so fun

01:17and it has such a great sense of humor

01:19and there's a weirdness to it that I wanted to put into the movie

01:23and I want it to be big and fun and crazy and insane.

01:26So, you know, the characters that are acting

01:28have to act like they're in the world of Borderlands

01:31where certain things are normal and certain things are strange.

01:34So, you know, you're letting Kate, you know,

01:36she's this annoyed, pissed-off bounty hunter

01:38just being a badass.

01:39I want her to be like Clint Eastwood, man with no name,

01:41or Snake Plissken, Escape from New York,

01:43and she's like, oh, Escape from New York's my favorite movie.

01:45I was like, okay, great, great, this is perfect.

01:47But, you know, it's strange.

01:48Like, I'm acting it out going,

01:49now there's the Thresher and there's a giant monster

01:51and you're going in its mouth and they're out the other...

01:53So, you know, I'm always off-camera acting and describing

01:56and completely into it.

01:58But for me, it's just, you know, populating the world,

02:01giving them sets, giving the costumes,

02:03just fully leaning into it

02:05and everyone embracing this is the world of Borderlands

02:08and just going and having fun.

02:12Would you look at that?

02:13A ladder!

02:14Unfortunately, my design doesn't facilitate this type of...

02:19Well, destiny awaits.

02:23Legend has it that there's this massive treasure

02:27hidden in some secret vault.

02:32And if you go hunting for it,

02:33you'd better take any help you can get.

02:40Because it's on the weirdest, most dangerous

02:44dumpster fire of a world in the universe.

02:48God, I hate this planet.

02:53What is that smell?

02:54I like the fact that...

02:55And I was at CinemaCon when you were with Ariana

02:58and the thing is that I love the sort of pinpoint

03:01you give for directing.

03:02Like, I think with her it was Empire that you were...

03:05She said, what should I watch?

03:06Should I watch this movie?

03:07Should I watch, you know, Harley Quinn or this or Suicide?

03:09I said, no, watch Andy Warhol's Empire

03:11just to see if she'd do it.

03:13Which is eight and a half hours of the same shot

03:15of the Empire State Building.

03:16Yeah, she did.

03:17And then she's like, okay, great.

03:18And then I was like, what should I watch next?

03:20I was like, watch this film called

03:21My Dinner with Andre.

03:22And she watched My Dinner with Andre.

03:24And she's like, I was thinking of doing a playlist

03:26of music to be Tiny Tina and Crazy and Explosions.

03:28I was like, you should really listen to Michael McDonald.

03:31Just only songs by Michael McDonald.

03:33So what was so great was we got so...

03:36Like, it just put us in a headspace

03:37of just being total lunatics that we had an iPad

03:40set up with Empire playing next to the monitor

03:43and we would just be sitting watching it

03:45and Kate would come in with a question.

03:46It was, shh, so the lights go on.

03:50I remember we were watching,

03:51me and Ariana were just sitting there

03:52and she's 13 years old in her bunny ears

03:54just watching My Dinner with Andre.

03:56And Jamie Lee Curtis is like, what are you doing?

03:59We're like, shh, this is the part

04:00where the dinner rolls come.

04:02And then we're just like,

04:03why are you watching My Dinner?

04:04It was just...

04:05And then Jamie getting...

04:06And then of course, Jamie and Kate are now watching it.

04:08And then Kevin comes in.

04:09He's like, what the hell is...

04:10Are we making a movie?

04:11What's going on?

04:12We're like, oh wow, the wine just came.

04:15So that was the fun of the absurdity

04:17of just making this movie,

04:19was we were just like in this very strange place,

04:21but it was locked down in Budapest

04:23and that's what happened.

04:24We all went nuts.

04:25Piss wash gun.

04:26Ew!

04:27Put the window up.

04:28I don't want to!

04:29Roll the window up!

04:32It's pee.

04:33It's pee.

04:34Why do you think it's called piss wash?

04:35How did it get the name?

04:36It's in my mouth!

04:47Do you know how many people have died

04:50looking for this vault?

04:51We have something they don't, baby girl.

04:54Okay.

04:55What?

04:56Major issues.

05:04Time to make it rain!

05:06With your body parts!

05:10What did I tell you?

05:11Minimal explosions!

05:12I said no explosions!

05:14Well, here's a question,

05:15because obviously you have Jack,

05:16you have Kevin,

05:17you have these people that are known

05:19for sort of riffing, too.

05:20How much did you have to sort of balance that

05:22because you have all these sort of

05:24locked down shots and stuff like that?

05:26I mean, the stuff with Clack Track

05:27is absolutely fantastic,

05:29but I'm not sure if you had to sort of

05:31wean that in,

05:32if you had to do certain things.

05:33Let them do their thing.

05:34You're working with the greatest actors

05:36in the world,

05:37so you set them up for success

05:39and then get the hell out of the way.

05:41Like Kevin's shooting and fighting

05:43and Jamie just grabs his gun and points.

05:45And she's like, what the hell?

05:46What are you doing?

05:47He's like, I needed a gun.

05:48He's like, so you asked for it!

05:49Like, you just, that happens.

05:51And then Kate's like, oh.

05:53I thought, what if you grab a flamethrower?

05:55So she's like, all right, get me one.

05:56Teach me how to use it.

05:57She's shooting real fire.

05:58She's like doing the flamethrower.

06:00And then, you know, with Clap Trap,

06:02the great thing is because it's CGI in post,

06:04we could add lines after.

06:06We're like, oh, Jack should say this

06:07and this and this.

06:08So with Jack, we'd record it a few times.

06:10Then I'd come up with lines

06:11and the actors would say something opposite him

06:13and then we'd give it to Jack to temp it

06:14or I would temp it and Jack would redo it.

06:16So, you know, when you have the greatest actors

06:18in the world, you can just set them up

06:20and get out of the way.

06:22Brave vault hunters.

06:25You've come in search of the secret

06:27lost vault of Pandora.

06:31You ready to kick some ass?

06:32Okay, let's go.

06:33Hey, hey, hey.

06:38Dredge.

06:39You know what I'm trying to say.

06:42If the legends were true.

06:43I'm the only one who can open the vault.

06:52Hit it.

06:53What are you doing?

06:59Feel free to applaud.

07:03Follow me this way.

07:04I have a tremendous sense of duty.

07:10Nobody kills me but me.

07:12And my last question,

07:13because it's all about also the thematics.

07:15The thematics are in the game,

07:16but there's also, because it's about anti-heroes,

07:18not heroes, it's about reluctant heroes.

07:21Could you sort of talk about that

07:22and sort of playing that into certain things?

07:24I mean, you know, just Kate with the guns is insane.

07:27You were talking about a man with no name,

07:29but even the man with no name

07:30didn't really want to be there unless he needed to.

07:33Yeah, no, she doesn't want to be there.

07:34It's all about, you know, two things.

07:36It's kind of embracing who you really are

07:39and embracing your power of what you're like,

07:41you know, embracing who you are.

07:42That's your superpower.

07:43And, you know, being a selfish person

07:45and learning to be selfless.

07:46You know, she's like a taker at the beginning

07:48and learns to become a giver.

07:50And it's also finding your own family.

07:52You know, these people all hate each other.

07:54They can't stand each other.

07:55But then at the end,

07:56they all love each other through this experience.

07:58So that's really the messages that I think

08:00are at the core of it, you know, that really have heart.

08:12Stop!

08:13Step aside, bitches!

08:17Ooh, mine's bigger.

08:22I needed a gun.

08:23So you asked for it.

08:26You're the only one of you in the world.

08:28You're special.

08:29Uh-oh.

08:30Kill them all.

08:41No!

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