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