Eli Roth’s Borderlands: Penn Jillette signs on for a small role

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

In the 2019 video game Borderlands 3 (pick up a copy HERE), there were a pair of bandits called Pain and Terror, who were based on the comedy / magician duo Penn and Teller. So now that director Eli Roth is making a Borderlands movie, it's very fitting that he is getting Penn Jillette to make a cameo appearance.

Jillette confirmed his Borderlands role on an episode of his Sunday School podcast. As reported by /Film, Jillette said 

he will be shooting a few scenes for the Borderlands movie. In the movie, Jillette will be playing a preacher overseeing a wedding, and there’s a fight scene that interrupts the nuptials. After the action is done, he ends up in a “space paddywagon” with Kevin Hart’s character Roland. Jillette said it’s a “very, very, very small part,” and most of the scenes will be with Hart.

By taking this small part, Jillette joins a cast that includes Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Edgar Ramirez, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Haley Bennett, Olivier Richters, Janina Gavankar, Gina Gershon, Cheyenne Jackson, Charles Babalola, Benjamin Byron Davis, Steven Boyer, Bobby Lee, Ryann Redmond, and Jack Black. 

Scripted by Craig Mazin, Borderlands is based on the game from Gearbox and 2K. The film has the following synopsis:

Lilith (Blanchett), an infamous outlaw with a mysterious past, reluctantly returns to her home planet of Pandora to find the missing daughter of the universe’s most powerful S.O.B., Atlas (Ramirez). Lilith forms an alliance with an unexpected team – Roland (Hart), a former elite mercenary, now desperate for redemption; Tiny Tina (Greenblatt), a feral pre-teen demolitionist; Krieg (Munteanu), Tina’s musclebound, rhetorically challenged protector; Tannis (Curtis), the scientist with a tenuous grip on sanity; and Claptrap (Black), a persistently wiseass robot. These unlikely heroes must battle alien monsters and dangerous bandits to find and protect the missing girl, who may hold the key to unimaginable power. The fate of the universe could be in their hands – but they’ll be fighting for something more: each other. 

Borderlands is being produced by Arad Productions' Avi Arad and Ari Arad, along with PICTURESTART's Erik Feig. Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford serves as executive producer with Strauss Zelnick of Take-Two Interactive. James Myers and Aaron Edmonds are overseeing the project for Lionsgate, while Emmy Yu does the same for Arad Productions and Lucy Kitada and Royce Reeves-Darby are overseeing for PICTURESTART.