Eli Roth Says He and Cate Blanchett 'Had the Time of Our Lives' Making “Borderlands” During CinemaCon Teaser

In theaters Aug. 9, the game-to-screen ‘Borderlands’ also stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Hart, Ariana Greenblatt and Jack Black

Cate Blanchett, Ariana Greenblatt, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis and more are blazing onto the big screen in Borderlands.

In Las Vegas on April 10 for CinemaCon 2024, distributor Lionsgate and the filmmakers behind the adaptation of the video game series teased more details ahead of its Aug. 9 release.

Borderlands comes from horror filmmaker Eli Roth, who co-wrote the screenplay with Joe Crombie. It stars Blanchett, 54, as the infamous — and fiery-red-headed — space outlaw Lilith, teaming up with a band of outcasts that includes former soldier Roland (Hart), scientist Tannis (Curtis), pre-teen demolitionist Tiny Tina (Greenblatt), Tina’s bodyguard Krieg (Florian Munteanu) and feisty robot Claptrap (Jack Black).

“The fate of the universe could be in their hands – but they’ll be fighting for something more: each other,” per an official synopsis.

Related: Kate Winslet Says She Gets Mistaken for Cate Blanchett 'a Lot': It 'Is a Huge Compliment'

Roth, 51, took the stage at Caesars Palace to show an extended version of the movie’s trailer released in February — and called the cast a “crazy weird functional dysfunctional family.”

Once Blanchett agreed to swap in her Tár conductor’s baton for a flamethrower, Roth quipped, the rest of the all-star cast joined. “We had the time of our lives making it,” he said.

Greenblatt, 16, joined the writer-director onstage to reflect on her experience playing Tiny Tina — a casting that predated her work in Barbie. “I’ve never been happier on a set than I was with Borderlands,” she admitted. “I have a great support system around me and that’s the key to staying sane, so I can play insane characters.”

On set, she added, “Eli and I talked in code every day.” Roth joked about recommending strange arthouse movies to Greenblatt, including My Dinner With André and Andy Warhol’s Empire State Building film Empire, to the befuddlement of other cast members.

It was the kind of environment that invited spontaneity, according to Greenblatt. Many moments had the team asking, “ ‘Was it scripted, was it not?’ And everything Kevin said was not.”

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PEOPLE had the exclusive first look at the game-to-screen adaptation with colorful production photos released in February.

Curtis, 65, shared a peek and “secret BTS shot” of Blanchett as the sassy Siren on her Instagram in 2021, writing, “Lilith, our legendary heroine, psycho blasting, vault hunting, vixen with a bad attitude and two Oscars to add to the baddasery in her tool belt… The once and future Queen of EVERYTHING, #cateblanchett."

Related: Lindsay Lohan Is ‘Excited to Work with’ Jamie Lee Curtis on Freaky Friday Sequel: ‘We’re Going to Have a Lot of Fun’ (Exclusive)

The Borderlands action role-playing first-person games have earned critical and commercial success since the franchise’s first game was released by Gearbox Software in 2009.

Borderlands is in theaters Aug. 9.

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