Borderlands: The Movie’s Screenwriter Doesn’t Exist?

Borderlands It is without a doubt theThe biggest cinematic flop of 2024even though it has only been in theaters for a few days. The film directed by Eli Rothin fact, has so far only grossed 19 million dollars worldwide after costing over 120.

The film, in addition to being a resounding flop at the box office, did not convince even the specialized critics, with many reviewers labelling it as the pbest movie ever made from a video gameOn Rotten Tomatoes, the film records a percentage of positive reviews equal to 10% (with a sample of 140 reviews) with an average rating of 3.3/10.

Added to this bleak scenario is also a small mystery linked to the identity of one of the credited screenwriters, namely Joe Crombie. In 2021, the video game adaptation went into production with a script that Eli Roth had co-written with Craig Mazinwho recently became known for writing the TV series Chernobyl And The Last of Us.

Additional filming took place in the summer of 2022, and in November of the same year the film was shown in a preliminary version to a select audience, who negatively received what was seen. This led Lionsgate to request additional reshoots, which were not directed by Roth but by Tim Miller (director of Deadpool).

Following these production problems, Mazin decided to dissociate himself from the film. having their names removed from the credited writersThe screenwriter was later replaced by a certain Joe Crombie who, all things considered, it would seem not to exist. According to some rumors, it seems that this would be a pseudonym of Mazin himselfused in order to distance himself from the film, but the screenwriter has denied such rumors in an interview given to Variety.

I am not a credited writer on the film, so I cannot claim any kind of authorship of Borderlands, much less a ‘co-writer’. The rumors regarding Joe Crombie’s identity are false. I did not use a pseudonym. If the name in question is indeed a pseudonym, all I can say is that it is not mine.

Despite this denial, Pete Hammond Of Deadline in his review he has openly indicated that Crombie and Mazin are the same person:

Craig Mazin is credited as co-writer using the pseudonym “Joe Crombie” (which only has this credit listed on IMDb and, according to the site, is Mazin’s pen name).

Other uncredited writers who have been hired to rewrite Borderlands include Gary Ross, Aaron Berg, Oren Uziel, Juel Taylor, Tony Rettenmaier, Zak Olkewicz, Chris Bremner, and Sam Levinso. Joe Crombie, if he doesn’t actually existit could also be one of these.