Eli Roth now has a House with a Clock in Its Walls reunion ready for his take on Borderlands, because Jack Black is joining the previously-announced Cate Blanchett for the video game adaptation. Black will play wisecracking robot Claptrap in the film, and honestly, getting Jack Black to play a sarcastic robot is pretty good casting, no matter how you feel about this movie. The cast also includes Kevin Hart and Jamie Lee Curtis, with Craig Mazin handling the script.

Claptrap, a character that’s sort of a mash-up of Wall-E and Deadpool, is – per the Borderlands wiki – “a CL4P-TP general purpose robot manufactured by Hyperion. It has been programmed with an overenthusiastic personality, and brags frequently, yet also expresses severe loneliness and cowardice.” And now the character is set to be played by Jack Black in the Borderlands movie from director Eli Roth for studio Lionsgate. “I am so excited to reunite with Jack, this time in the recording booth. Claptrap is the funniest character in the game, and Jack is perfect to bring him to the big screen,” Roth said.

Nathan Kahane, president of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, added: “We couldn’t have been more in sync with our filmmakers and casting executives as we approached this role. It’s one of the biggest no-brainer casting decisions we’ve ever made. Everyone who’s ever played the game knows Jack is perfect for this part. We’re thrilled he will add his endless comic energy and voice to our film – he’ll bring so much to the movie.”

The Borderlands script comes from Craig Mazin, creator of HBO’s Chernobyl and writer of the upcoming The Last of Us TV series. Black joins a cast that includes Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, and Jamie Lee Curtis. Borderlands is based on the best-selling video game from developer Gearbox Software and publisher 2K, a wholly owned label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.

The first game, released in 2009, focused on “a group of four Vault Hunters, who travel to the distant planet of Pandora to search for the “Vault”, which is rumored to contain advanced alien technology and other priceless riches. The hunters piece together clues to find the Vault while battling the savage wildlife of Pandora and the bandits and outlaws that populate the planet, ultimately banding together to prevent the Atlas Corporation and its privately-funded paramilitary forces from reaching the Vault first.”

I’ve never played Borderlands, but I’m intrigued about all of this – the cast is shaping up to be quite strong. The only thing giving me pause is Roth, a filmmaker whose work I have never really enjoyed. But I’m certainly willing to give the Borderlands movie a shot when it arrives.

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