Tim Miller Overseeing 'Borderlands' Reshoots As Eli Roth Focuses On Feature Version Of His 'Grindhouse' Slasher 'Thanksgiving'

Director Eli Roth (“Death Wish”) made some waves when he assembled an impressive cast for Lionsgate’s high-profile film adaptation of the comedic shooter video game “Borderlands.” The film features a script penned by Craig Mazin (“The Last of Us”) and Roth, and its high-profile cast consists of Cate Blanchette, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Haley Bennett, Edgar Ramirez, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Florian Munteanu. However, it looks like Roth is stepping away and giving the reigns to another filmmaker to get it past the finish line as another project has risen as the greater priority. Or at least, that’s the story given, but it’s a highly unusual move that smells a little bit like “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.”

In a new report from Deadline, the film reportedly still needs two weeks of reshoots, but Roth is going to be too busy with his feature version of the holiday horror slasher, “Thanksgiving.” This means the studio has hired another director to do that job instead. And they’ve tasked “Deadpool” director Tim Miller, who previously worked with franchise creator James Cameron on “Terminator: Dark Fate,” to handle those reshoots on “Borderlands” as the film is without a release date.

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Filming on Roth’s horror pic begins this March with a script by Jeff Rendell at Spyglass Media, the new home of the “Scream” franchise. “Thanksgiving” had initially featured Michael Biehn (“Aliens”) as a small-town Massachusetts sheriff dealing with a series of murders over the Thanksgiving holiday committed by a slasher dressed as a pilgrim. Roth had shot a portion of the faux trailer in Europe during the shoot of “Hostel” using some of those cast members. It was added to the run of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s “Grindhouse” double-feature (see below), which had showcased the original version of “Machete” before Rodriguez turned those into two theatrical releases. It’s unclear if any of the original cast of the trailer will be returning, as it also featured Roth, Jay Hernandez, and Jordan Ladd playing some of the young victims.