Though it was at one point reported that the most recent draft of Lionsgate’s “Borderlands” movie had been co-written by Craig Mazin, that involvement doesn’t seem to be true.
Questions about the “Chernobyl” and “The Last of Us” writer’s attachment began to rise on Sunday, when World of Reel reported that “Borderlands” was in “post-production hell” and that Mazin had removed his name from the project, opting instead to use the pseudonym “Joe Crombie.” While the Writers Guild of America’s website does list Joe Crombie as a co-writer alongside director Eli Roth, Mazin is now publicly denying that the pen name is his.
“I am not a credited writer on the film, so I cannot claim any kind of authorship of ‘Borderlands,’ much less ‘co-writing,’” he said in a statement to Variety. “I did see the report about the pseudonym, which is false. I did not use a pseudonym. If the name in question is indeed a pseudonym, all I can say is… it’s not mine.”
Based on the popular video game series of the same name, “Borderlands” will follow Lilith (Cate Blanchett), an infamous outlaw with a mysterious past. She reluctantly returns to her home planet of Pandora and forms an unexpected alliance to find the missing daughter of Atlas (Édgar Ramírez), a business titan and arms manufacturer who is considered the most powerful person in the universe.
In addition to Blanchett and Ramirez, “Borderlands” will star Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jack Black, Arianna Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Haley Bennett and Bobby Lee.