Jack Black voices the robot Claptrap in the upcoming Borderlands film. The actor describes the character as an “R-rated R2D2.” This characterization should come as little surprise to fans of the game series, who know how Claptrap has many humorous and foul-mouthed lines.

Black revealed this to Total Film recently. Speaking about the upcoming film, Black said, “I love the voice acting. I also love that video game, so it was fun to be able to voice that character.”

He added: “[Claptrap is a] cool, fun, little turn, and another opportunity to bring a great video game to the silver screen.”

Black is no stranger to video game movies, as he also voiced Bowser in the wildly popular The Super Mario Bros. Movie in 2023. In video games themselves, Black voiced Eddie Riggs in Brutal Legend and Harm’ny Lightbeard in Broken Age, among other roles.

In fact, Black’s first-ever acting job was an advertisement for the video game Pitfall in 1982 when he was 13 years old.

Looking ahead, Black is playing Steve in the Minecraft movie. Black observed that there seems to be something of a resurgence in video game movies these days. “We’re kind of in the middle of a video game movie renaissance right now, and I’m stoked to be a part of it,” he said.

The Borderlands movie releases in theaters this August. It also stars Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Ariana Greenblatt, and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Jack Black is surprised that there hasn’t been a movie based on Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead Redemption so far, but there might actually be a good reason for that.

Speaking to Total Film, Black said, “I can’t believe they haven’t already started making a movie of any of the Rockstar Games–Grand Theft Auto, but especially Red Dead Redemption.”

He said the GTA and Red Dead games are “already like movies,” and that might explain why they haven’t been adapted into feature films as of yet. “Some video games are already halfway there to telling those kind of stories, and there are some movies that are like video games,” he said.

For what it’s worth, Rockstar parent company Take-Two’s CEO Strauss Zelnick has said the company would want to fund a potential GTA or Red Dead movie itself to avoid a situation where some other entity might get to call the creative shots.

“Part of it is, if we were to do something like that, we’d want to have complete creative control to make sure we expressed [GTA] in the way we wanted–and that would mean we’d need to finance that motion picture,” Zelnick said. “While we have the balance sheet to do it, we don’t have the corporate expertise to do it, because only a handful of people inside Take-Two have ever worked in that business. I’m one of them. But that’s not what we do for a living.”

Zelnick has also reminded people that movies are by and large not a very profitable business. The Super Mario Bros. was a massive commercial success with over $1 billion at the box office, but Zelnick said more often than not, video game movies fail and money is lost.

Zelnick previously served as the president and chief operating officer of 20th Century Fox where he oversaw production and distribution of numerous movies. He was only 32 years old when he was running Fox’s film business.

Take-Two has licensed a couple of its franchises for feature films already. The Rock starred in 2005’s Doom and Mark Wahlberg played the lead in 2008’s Max Payne movie. Both were panned critically and didn’t make much money at the box office. Looking ahead, there is a star-studded Borderlands movie based on the 2K franchise coming this August and a BioShock movie in the works for Netflix.

Black went on to say that he sees a future where video games and movies merge more than before. He cited the interactive Black Mirror episode Bandersnatch as an example of this.

“I think we’re moving in that way where there’s going to be more combinations of video games and movies, and it’s exciting. It’s like the beginning of a new era,” he said.

Black voiced Bowser in 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie and is playing Steve in the Minecraft movie. His next video game role is voicing Claptrap in the Borderlands film.

Jake Gyllenhaal had come close to some serious franchise roles early in his career only to lose out in the final round. The Oscar-nominated actor, who can now be seen in the Roadhouse remake on Prime Video, recently talked about what drove him harder when being let down.

Talking to Howard Stern, Gyllenhaal said that losing out on Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins and Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge helped him become more motivated in landing roles he believed in. He also praised both directors for coming to him personally and telling him he didn’t get the roles and why.

“When you get that far, there’s a real legitimacy to you potentially getting something. It’s not like they’re going, ‘Oh, thanks so much.’ They are going, ‘I saw these aspects of you that I really wanted in the role and are wonderful, but in the end I ended up moving this way because it matches better with this person who is opposite you or would be opposite you,” he said. “The color of their hair or their height, whatever it is. There are all these non factors that really are the inexplicable stuff that if you start to pick away at it doesn’t work, it’s not healthy.”

Being unable to work on Batman Begins allowed Gyllenhaal to work with another would-be Moulin Rouge star, Heath Ledger, in the pivotal Brokeback Mountain. The film earned Gyllenhaal his first Oscar nomination and worldwide critical acclaim.

“I remember getting a call from Christopher Nolan and thinking, ‘I just got a call personally from Christopher Nolan. That’s pretty cool. I’ve gotten pretty far. I went from them going they aren’t sure [about me] to a call saying they’re really thinking about you for this movie. So okay, I should keep going. I should just keep going.”

Gyllenhaal was also considered as a replacement for Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man 2 should the actor’s pre-existing back condition bother him. The actor followed Brokeback with David Fincher’s Zodiac and was elevated to leading man status.

As for playing Batman, Gyllenhaal isn’t averse to capes after playing Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home and would still love a shot at the Caped Crusader.

“It’s an honor,” Gyllenhaal answered. “Speaking of playing roles that other incredible actors have played in the past…when I think about it, I’m going to play Iago in Othello with Denzel Washington, and I think about like the history of actors that have played that role throughout time, and I’m intimidated by that. So that’s the first level. That’s what I’m working on right now. But of course. It would be an honor always. Those types of things and those roles are classics.”

Leave it to a former James Bond actor to size up a future 007 candidate. In this case, GoldenEye star Pierce Brosnan absolutely believes Bullet Train’s Aaron Taylor-Johnson has the ability to suit up and drink martinis on the silver screen as the British spy.

According to Variety, Brosnan was asked on RTE Radio 1’s The Ray D’Arcy Show about the report that Taylor-Johnson could be the next Bond. “I think the man has the chops and the talent and the charisma to play Bond, very much so,” Brosnan said.

The two actors actually previously worked together on the 2009 drama film, The Greatest. Brosnan was very complimentary of Taylor-Johnson’s work in that movie, too, saying, “he was the greatest in it.”

This isn’t the first time Brosnan has given his approval to another actor assuming the role of 007. Earlier this year, he said Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy would be a “magnificent” Bond. As for Taylor-Johnson, he’s done his best to stay mum about the 007 rumors. “I can only really talk about the other things I’m going to show and tell,” Taylor-Johnson told Rolling Stone this month.

Brosnan played Bond from 1995 to 2002, starring in four 007 movies that ended with Die Another Day. He pleaded guilty to entering an off-limits area at Yellowstone National Park earlier this month.

Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, has spoken more about his desire to create a more open console ecosystem, similar to how PC users can access multiple storefronts. When asked in a GDC interview if he could see a future where Xbox consoles allowed stores like Itch.io and the Epic Games Store to exist on that platform, Spencer replied with a brief “yes” before expanding on his vision for the future of gaming.

“[Consider] our history as the Windows company. Nobody would blink twice if I said, ‘Hey, when you’re using a PC, you get to decide the type of experience you have [by picking where to buy games].’ There’s real value in that,” Spencer said to Polygon.

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