Eli Roth set to direct 'Borderlands' movie based on hit first-person shooter

Eli Roth is to direct a movie based on hit first-person shooter game Borderlands.

The long-in-gestation project will will find the former Tarantino protégé behind the camera, with a script from Craig Mazin.

Mazin is best know for writing the critically acclaimed HBO series Chernobyl, and scooping an Emmy for his trouble.

Prior to that, he'd penned movies like The Hangover Part II and Identity Thief.

Producing the movie for the Lionsgate studio will be Avi Arad, the original founder of Marvel Studios, and producer of the Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse.

Said Roth in a statement: “I’m so excited to dive into the world of Borderlands and I could not be doing it with a better script, producing team, and studio. I have a long, successful history with Lionsgate – I feel like we have grown up together and that everything in my directing career has led to a project of this scale and ambition.”

The game was first released in 2009, following four 'vault hunters', who land on the planet of Pandora in the hope of finding a vault said to be brimming with alien technology.

They have to battle the local wildlife and local bandits, as well as the army of a private corporation which also has the prize in its sights.

Made by Gearbox Software, it sold over two million copies, spawned various DLC spin-offs and three sequels.

The movie was first announced back in 2015, though little has been heard about the project since.

Roth’s last movie was the kids’ horror comedy The House With A Clock In Its Walls, starring Cate Blanchett and Jack Black.