By Gina Yarbrough
San Diego, CA–The cast and filmmakers of the highly anticipated “Borderlands” theatrical film made an unexpected appearance at San Diego Comic-Con’s immersive Moxxi’s Bar activation on Friday.
The star-studded visit included Kevin Hart, Edgar Ramírez, Florian Munteanu, Janina Gavankar, Bobby Lee, Benjamin Byron Davis, and Jamie Lee Curtis. They joined director and co-writer Eli Roth, producer Ari Arad, executive producer Emmy Yu, and executive producer and Borderlands game creator Randy Pitchford.
Moxxi’s Bar, a detailed replica of the bar featured in the film, offered hand-crafted, themed cocktails sponsored by Ballantine’s. Guests had the chance to mingle with the cast and crew, the press, and influencers. The lively atmosphere was enhanced by unique activities, including a dunk tank operated by masked Bandits and a DJ set by a Claptrap robot.
Ari Arad expressed excitement to share in the celebration of the film with fans at San Diego Comic-Con.
“I think the movie captures that spirit of adventure, and a little dysfunction, and a lot of joy,” Arad said about the film.
Emmy Yu shared that bringing “Borderlands” to Comic-Con was a dream come true. She hopes for positive feedback from fans of the franchise and wholeheartedly embraces the film.
“When we were first developing this movie, obviously my dream the entire time was to see it at Comic-Con,” Yu said. “I hope they love the swagger of it,” she added.
The excitement around the “Borderlands” experience has been positive, with the sold-out Moxxi’s Bar activation drawing fans, and a standby line outside wrapping around the building.
The film stars Cate Blanchett as Lilith, an infamous bounty hunter with a mysterious past. She reluctantly returns to her home, Pandora, the most chaotic planet in the galaxy. Lilith’s mission is to find the missing daughter of Atlas (Ramírez), the universe’s most powerful S.O.B. Lilith forms an unexpected alliance with a ragtag team of misfits – Roland (Hart), a seasoned mercenary on a mission, Tiny Tina (Greenblatt), a feral pre-teen demolitionist, Krieg (Munteanu), Tina’s muscle-bound protector, Tannis (Curtis), the oddball scientist who’s seen it all, and Claptrap (Black), a wiseass robot. Together, these unlikely heroes must battle an alien species and dangerous bandits to uncover one of Pandora’s most explosive secrets. The fate of the universe could be in their hands – but they’ll be fighting for something more: each other.
Jaime Lee Curtis took a break from filming “Freaky Friday 2” with Lindsay Lohan, to mingle with fans at Moxxi’s Bar.
“The goal, of course, is you’re taking something people love and transforming it to the screen, and you hope that the fans love it,” said Curtis.
Comedian and actor Kevin Hart shared his experiences meeting fans of “Borderlands” at the event.
“It’s amazing getting to see fans at this level. It’s definitely an experience people have embraced, not just the video games, or the movie, but the ideas, the creativity, to be lucky enough to be part of a project that gets to be in the forefront of something like this is big,” said Hart.
The film stars Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Edgar Ramírez, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Gina Gershon, and Jamie Lee Curtis.
The film is based on the best-selling video game Borderlands, created by Gearbox Software and published by 2K Productions. The film is scheduled to be released in theaters on August 9.
