Image: Gearbox / 3D Realms
I hate to ruin your Friday right at the beginning of the weekend, but I’m bringing some disturbing news from the Hollywood side. It seems that the creative people behind Cobra Kai, the renaissance of the Karate Kid, have decided that they want to make a film, a feature film based on the once popular 90s first-person character Duke Newham. 2022 continues to be a strange year.
The Hollywood Reporter, uh … reports that Legendary Entertainment has licensed the film rights to the Duke Nukem franchise from Gearbox and is now planning to make a new film with the character. According to the publication, this new project will be produced by the creators of Cobra Kai Josh Heald, John Herwitz and Hayden Schlossberg.
Jean-Julien Barone, who previously worked on the film adaptation of Assassin’s Creed, is also a producer through Marla Studios, a company that specializes in video game adaptations.
3D Realms (then known as Apogee Software) released the first game in the Duke Nukem series in 1991. However, it was not until 1996, with the release of reviews of Duke Nukem 3D, that the franchise became famous. (Well, at least among nerdy households.) Much of this popularity is due to how interactive Duke Nukem 3D was, full of then-innovative touches like working light switches, flushing toilets, and simulated mirrors. And of course, I guess some people liked the main character, Duke Nukem, even if all his famous phrases were just stolen from popular movie characters.
After 3D and some expansions, the brand remained dormant until 2011, when the long-awaited sequel, Duke Nukem Forever, was finally released. It sucked. And since then, Duke Nukem’s future as a franchise seemed … unlikely.
This is not the first time a film about Duke Nukem has been developed. The Hollywood Reporter notes that Paramount has been working on the Duke Nukem project with John Cena for several years. Imagine living in this timeline. Although this project may not happen, it has a much better chance, as Hollywood has become much more interested in pumping out movies and TV shows based on famous video games.
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The gearbox had no further comment when reached.
No writer or director has yet been selected or forced to join this project and bring Duke Nukem to life. That means we still have time. We can stop this.
I think there may be a way to make a fun, probably even “good” Duke Nukem movie. He will start with the fact that he is a washed-up loser who had a great moment saving the world in the 90’s, and has ridden this fame for the last 30 years. But to understand the rest of this story, you’re going to have to hire me to write a spec script.
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