Edgar Ramirez is the latest addition to the cast of Eli Roth's video game adaptation Borderlands, as he has signed on to play a character named Atlas, "a business titan and arms manufacturer, and the most powerful person in the universe". Sounds like a pretty good role to me.
Ramirez's co-stars include Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Haley Bennett, and Jack Black.
Based on the game from Gearbox and 2K, Borderlands 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.
Roth had this to say about the casting of Ramirez:
What an incredible honor to have an actor of Edgar’s caliber, talent, and charisma playing opposite Cate Blanchett and this remarkable cast. Atlas has to be a truly magnetic personality, someone with charisma and charm but that air of menace underneath it all. I’ve been a fan of Edgar’s since his early performances and he continues to amaze me with each dramatic turn. We want to create something wild, fun, and very different from anything they’ve seen from Edgar before. I am so, so excited to work with him."
Borderlands is coming to us from Lionsgate, and the studio's president Nathan Kahane added:
The force of Edgar’s presence and the strength of his talent as an actor make him an ideal choice to play Atlas, a character who controls the fate of so many in the Borderlands universe. He’s the perfect addition to this perfect cast."
Scripted by Craig Mazin, 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.
Ramirez's previous credits include The Bourne Ultimatum, Wrath of the Titans, Zero Dark Thirty, Deliver Us from Evil, the Point Break remake, Hands of Stone, The Girl on the Train, Bright, American Crime Story, and Yes Day.