After years of rumours, false starts and development hell, it seems that the cigar-chomping, gun-toting, shades-wearing, alien ass-kicking Duke Nukem might finally be on his way to the big screen courtesy of Cobra Kai creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg.
As reported by Deadline, Legendary Entertainment has acquired the movie rights to the classic video game franchise from Gearbox and has set the trio to develop a feature adaptation which they will produce through their Counterbalance Entertainment.
A parody of the muscle-bound, hyper-macho action heroes of the 1980s, Duke Nukem was created by Apogee Software Ltd and the first two games released on PC in 1991 and 1993. However, its biggest success was 1996’s Duke Nukem 3D, which took the series into the realm of first person shooter and helped to revolutionise the genre alongside Wolfenstein 3D and DOOM. A long-awaited fourth instalment, Duke Nukem Forever, finally came in 2011.
On the movie front, a feature adaptation of the series has been in development on and off since the late 1990s but the closest it came to becoming a reality was in 2018 when John Cena signed on for the title role in a project produced by Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes, which was said to be looking to evoke Deadpool with its tone.
Are you excited about the prospect of finally seeing a Duke Nukem movie? Is John Cena still the perfect choice for the role? Let us know your thoughts on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
