Borderlands stunt coordinator Jimmy O'Dee says the video-game adaptation was originally shot with an R-rating in mind.

Eli Roth’s long-awaited Borderlands movie has finally hit theaters, but unfortunately, it isn’t off to a great start. The project started production in 2021, and according to stunt coordinator Jimmy O’Dee, they were told that Borderlands would shoot with the assumption that it would be R-rated.

“We were shooting an R-rated movie when we did it. We always knew that we were going to go either 15 or R rating, it’s 15 in UK, for a slightly mature audience,” O’Dee told ScreenRant. “So, we were blowing people’s heads off. And we were cutting feet off. We were doing all of that. But then, you know, a lot happens. We shot that nearly three years ago, or we just finished it. So, I guess a lot happens in post, and they see where it’s going to go and what market they’re aiming for. But literally the idea and the brief was carnage, head cutting off, feet cutting off. Go for it and then we’ll sort it out in post. It was that kind of thing.“

Given Roth’s history in the horror genre, it’s no surprise that he would want to bring a little of that to Borderlands. “He loves horror,” O’Dee said. “It was funny, he was on the second unit, he came over, and he was like, “Uh… just cut the ankles off. Yeah, get the knife and cut the ankles and we will leave these stubs.” It was kind of like there wasn’t enough gore for him sometimes. Eli was all over that kind of stuff. He was great to work with. It was such a fun time with him.” The film ultimately received a PG-13 rating for intense sequences of violence and action, language and some suggestive material.

  • tiramichu@lemm.eeEnglish
    58·
    3 months ago

    I agree, but it’s obvious why they did it.

    The teen demographic represents a huge part of the movie theatre crowd, and cutting that section out with an 18 or 15 rating can be the absolute death of a movie financially.

    If a movie is an 18, like a horror, they need to lean into the adult marketing really hard and make it feel like it’s worth going to for busy adults.

    Movies that have action and comedy elements rarely do well with an 18 rating. They will miss the adult crowd because they seem childish and not worth going to, and they’ll miss the child crowd too, because they literally can’t go!

    They messed up on this so bad by not committing at the outset to what they were trying to do, and not sticking to it all the way through.

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      21·
      3 months ago

      Except…checks notes the first borderlands game came out literally 15 years ago. Pretty much every fan of the series is already 17 and over at this point, even if they got their parents to buy the games for them when they were 12 year olds.

      • tiramichu@lemm.eeEnglish
        61·
        3 months ago

        Yes, it was a bad decision all around.

        If they had committed to it being 18 rated, it would likely have been much better and more enjoyable as a movie.

        I’m not saying they made the right decision, I’m only saying that I understand the chain of thought going through some executive’s head that lead to this decision being made and the end product we now have.

        The entire problem is that movies are often made with the primary intention to make money, rather than being made to be the best possible movie they can be, and that can be a huge hindrance to the final product.