They’re really doing it
Video game adaptations continue to be all the rage, and now Duke Nukem gets to join in. The movie rights to Duke Nukem have been acquired by Legendary Entertainment.
The Hollywood Reporter reports that Legendary has quite an interesting crew on board to produce the Duke Nukem project, too. Cobra Kai creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg are reportedly on board.
Alongside Legendary Entertainment, Marla Studios will also be on to produce. Marla Studios was founded by Assassin’s Creed (the movie) producer Jean-Julien Baronnet and specializes in video game adaptations. THR reports the search for a writer is underway, and there’s no director attached just yet either.
There was a Duke Nukem film project in the works not too long ago, over at Paramount. The project even had wrestling superstar John Cena attached to it, but the film reportedly stalled out.
The Duke is back?
By all accounts, this is some wild news. Duke Nukem may have been a heavy-hitter of the arena shooter era, but the series has stalled out. The infamously catastrophic Duke Nukem Forever seemed like it had forever shut the lid on new Duke Nukem games.
But not all video game heroes of the ’90s have faded into obscurity. Lara Croft had her revival in both video game and movie form, and Serious Sam has kept trucking along. 2016’s Doom was a brilliant revitalization, but it also made Doomguy a household name again.
Does Duke Nukem still have that appeal? Either way, Legendary Entertainment is picking the right team. The Cobra Kai is pretty dang good, and I’d imagine those showrunners could do something interesting with Duke. To be honest, after re-visiting the old Cena news, I’m now picturing a Peacemaker-style take on Duke Nukem and thinking it could somehow work.
