SANTA MONICA, Calif. and
NEW YORK, Aug. 28, 2015 /CNW/ -- Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF), a
premier next generation global content leader, is teaming with the
publisher and creators of Borderlands®, and
renowned producers Avi and Ari Arad
to adapt Gearbox Software's critically-acclaimed blockbuster video
game Borderlands into a tent-pole feature film, the parties
announced today. Borderlands is an action role-playing
first-person shooter video game created and developed by Gearbox
Software and published by 2K, a wholly owned label of Take-Two
Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO).
The award-winning Borderlands franchise has been lauded
by critics and over the years has built a passionate global fan
base, shipping more than 26 million copies around the world since
its launch in 2009, including 8 million copies shipped during Take
Two's fiscal year 2015 alone. Set in the frontier of a sci-fi
universe, Borderlands is best known for Gearbox's blending
of irreverent humor and characters, with a unique comic-book art
style, and co-operative four-player genre-bending, loot-grabbing
gameplay. It's a franchise that in the last six years has ushered
in a new and popular category of first-person shooters.
The Borderlands film creative team will be led by
producers Avi and Ari Arad, who are
responsible for some of the most successful motion picture and
television franchises in history, including Iron Man,
Spider Man, The Amazing Spider Man, X-Men,
Ghost Rider and Blade.
"We believe that we've brought together the right partners, the
ideal creative team and the perfect property to launch a new motion
picture tent-pole for a global audience," said Lionsgate Motion
Picture Group Co-Chairs Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger. "Part of our strategy in
entering the game space under Peter
Levin has been to source new brands with built-in audiences
that will translate into great films and television shows.
The Borderlands games don't pull any punches, and we'll make
the movie with the same in-your-face attitude that has made the
series a blockbuster mega-franchise."
"Our Borderlands franchise continues to grow in
popularity, and we've assembled a team with the strengths needed to
introduce this amazing cross-platform property to a whole new
global audience," said Take-Two Interactive Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer Strauss Zelnick. "Lionsgate has emerged as a
major creative force in the global marketplace with an incredible
portfolio of brands; our partners at Gearbox have pioneered and
cultivated an iconic property; and Avi and
Ari Arad are two of the most successful producers of action
franchises. This alliance is ideally positioned to create a bold,
provocative, no-holds-barred motion picture phenomenon that will
delight Borderlands' current legions of fans and captivate
moviegoers around the world."
"We're thrilled to extend our partnership with Jon Feltheimer, Michael
Burns, Rob, Patrick and the amazing team at Lionsgate and
join forces with Take-Two and Gearbox on this incredible property,"
said Avi and Ari Arad.
"Borderlands has a unique story-driven narrative energy and
rich multidimensional characters that position it to become a
singular motion picture event."
"Creating, developing and continuing to build the
Borderlands franchise at Gearbox Software has been an
incredible ride where the most powerful fuel to our engine has been
the astonishing outpouring of love and devotion from the fans,"
said Randy Pitchford, President and
Co-Founder of Gearbox Software. "It is the passion of the fans
driving the growing success of Borderlands that brought what
I believe to be the best team of film producers, marketing and
distribution experts in the world together to deliver the exciting
story and unique characters of Borderlands to the big
screen."
The deal was orchestrated by a Lionsgate team led by President
of Interactive Ventures & Games Peter
Levin, Summit Entertainment President of Production
Geoff Shaevitz and Lionsgate Motion
Picture Group President of Business & Legal Affairs
Patricia Laucella.
ABOUT TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE
Headquartered in New York City,
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is a leading developer,
publisher and marketer of interactive entertainment for consumers
around the globe. The Company develops and publishes products
through its two wholly-owned labels Rockstar Games and 2K.
Our products are designed for console systems and personal
computers, including smartphones and tablets, and are delivered
through physical retail, digital download, online platforms and
cloud streaming services. The Company's common stock is
publicly traded on NASDAQ under the symbol TTWO. For more corporate
and product information please visit our website at
http://www.take2games.com
.
ABOUT 2K
Founded in 2005, 2K develops and publishes interactive
entertainment globally for console systems, handheld gaming systems
and personal computers, including smartphones and tablets, which
are delivered through physical retail, digital download, online
platforms and cloud streaming services. 2K publishes titles in
today's most popular gaming genres, including shooters, action,
role-playing, strategy, sports, casual, and family entertainment.
The 2K label has some of the most talented development studios in
the world today, including Firaxis Games, Visual Concepts, Hangar
13, Cat Daddy Games and 2K China.
2K's stable of high quality titles includes the critically
acclaimed BioShock®, Borderlands™, and XCOM® franchises, the
beloved Sid Meier's Civilization
series, the innovative Evolve™, the popular WWE 2K franchise and
NBA 2K, the #1 rated and #1 selling basketball franchise*. 2K is
headquartered in Novato,
California and is a wholly owned label of Take-Two
Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO). For more information,
please visit
www.2k.com
.
*According to 2008 - 2015 Metacritic.com and The NPD
Group estimates of U.S. retail video game sales through
July 2015.
ABOUT GEARBOX SOFTWARE
Gearbox Software is respected industry wide for award winning,
best-selling video games developed for all major video game
platforms. Founded in 1999 and headquartered near Dallas, TX, Gearbox Software is well known for
the creation, development and management of its original
blockbuster video game franchises including the critically
acclaimed, award winning Brothers in Arms franchise and the
record-breaking, genre-setting Borderlands franchise. In addition
to having developed video games in some of the world's greatest
video game brands, including Half-Life and Halo, Gearbox Software
has also acquired and produced content for powerful, landmark
intellectual property including Duke Nukem and Homeworld. Gearbox
Software's success has been supported through many key and mutually
beneficial business relationships with the world's greatest video
game platform and publishing partners including Sony, Microsoft,
Nintendo, Valve/Steam, Apple and Take-Two/2K.
ABOUT LIONSGATE
Lionsgate is a premier next generation global content leader
with a strong and diversified presence in motion picture production
and distribution, television programming and syndication, home
entertainment, digital distribution, new channel platforms, video
games and international distribution and sales. Lionsgate currently
has more than 30 television shows on over 20 different networks
spanning its primetime production, distribution and syndication
businesses, including the critically-acclaimed hit series Orange
is the New Black, the multiple Emmy Award-winning drama Mad
Men, the hit broadcast network series Nashville, the syndication success The
Wendy Williams Show, the acclaimed drama Manhattan and the breakout series The
Royals.
Its feature film business has been fueled by such successes as
the blockbuster first three installments of The Hunger Games
franchise, the first two installments of the Divergent
franchise, The Age of Adaline, CBS/Lionsgate's The
DUFF, John Wick, Now
You See Me, Roadside Attractions' Love & Mercy and
Mr. Holmes,
Lionsgate/Codeblack Films' Addicted and Pantelion Films'
Instructions Not Included, the highest-grossing
Spanish-language film ever released in the U.S.
Lionsgate's home entertainment business is an industry leader in
box office-to-DVD and box office-to-VOD revenue conversion rates.
Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of
approximately 16,000 motion picture and television titles that is
an important source of recurring revenue and serves as the
foundation for the growth of the Company's core businesses. The
Lionsgate and Summit brands remain synonymous with original,
daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world.
www.lionsgate.com
For further information, please contact:
Peter D. Wilkes
310-255-3726
pwilkes@lionsgate.com
Logo -
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130919/LA83194LOGO
To view the original version on PR Newswire,
visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lionsgate-partners-with-take-two-interactive-software-inc-gearbox-software-and-producers-avi-and-ari-arad-on-film-adaptation-of-blockbuster-video-game-borderlands-300134569.html
SOURCE Lionsgate