Randy Pitchford of Gearbox and producer Avi Arad walk the red carpet with cosplayers for the premiere of ‘Borderlands’ based on the popular Gearbox video game at the Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff. (Rich Lopez/DV)
On Thursday night, Dallas-based video game company Gearbox premiered its first movie based on its popular game Borderlands. The game and company have been popular within the LGBTQ-gamer community for its inclusion of queer characters in the games and its advocacy for LGBTQ rights that affect its employees. The company has now moved into the movie business with Gearbox Studios and its inaugural film starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Florian Munteanu and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Sticking to the company’s home base of North Texas, the film premiered in Oak Cliff at the Texas Theatre with Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford present and producer Avi Arad, famous for a majority of Marvel films. The two walked the red carpet alongside cosplayers from the game before the film presentation folloewd by a Q&A with Pitchford and Arad and a reception in the lobby.
Originally the film was to include a same-sex wedding that has been featured in the video game.
“That scene had to get cut. It broke my heart. We had an interracial gay wedding with a kiss — on screen! The scene was perfect and beautiful but getting into it and out of the scene was kind of messy with the editing. There’s another scene that got cut that I’m in! I hope there’s a cut with the deleted footage — we gotta make this happen,” he said at the red carpet.
The film opens everywhere today. See photos from last night by Derek Burke with Extreme Photography Studios below.
–Rich Lopez