In an announcement that basically came way out of left field, it has been revealed that a Duke Nukem movie is in development and is being helmed by the creators of the Cobra Kai series.
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Josh Heald, Hayden Schlossberg, and John Hurwitz are all working together to bring the currently defunct video game franchise to the big screen, after Legendary Entertainment managed to acquire the rights from developer Gearbox Studios, writes IGN. The three are co-producing the feature length film with Marla Studios' Jean Julien Baronnet.
Marla Studios, for the uninitiated, is the company that brought the Assassin's Creed film (starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard) to life. As such, fan expectations might be a bit low considering how that film was received - though weirder things have happened in the past.
The original report came from The Hollywood Reporter, who revealed that the movie is currently looking for a writer to deal with the script. Aside from that, the Duke Nukem movie is also still without a director - which could open the door for either of Heald, Schlossberg, or Hurwitz to step in.
With this announcement, Gearbox is following up on the reveal of another movie based on their games: Borderlands. That one is directed by horror legend Eli Roth and stars Kevin Hart and Cate Blanchett. Helmed by Lionsgate, the Borderlands film is expected to be released later this year, meaning that the Duke Nukem one following out will not be out for years.
This would be the first time in a while that a major Duke Nukem project was announced. As previously mentioned, the series is more or less defunct these days, having released its last game, Duke Nukem Forever, way back in 2011. That game's launch was also punctuated by an insanely long 15-year development time - one of the worst cases of "development hell" in the game industry.
No vague release window for the film has been revealed, though there might be some very clear ideas as to who could play the titular character.
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Who Will Headline The Duke Nukem Movie?
There were numerous rumors back in 2018 that one very clear choice was made to play the titular Duke: former WWE superstar John Cena. Back then, the creators of Cobra Kai weren't the ones behind the original plans: it was Platinum Dunes, who were responsible for horror classics like A Nightmare On Elm Street and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (via ComicBook.com).
Obviously, that movie never came to be for reasons that are still unclear to this day. Either way, fans aren't having too hard of a time imagining Cena as the over-the-top video game hero, with some of them even coming up with fan art of Cena all made up as the Duke.
Twitter user BossLogic posted a photo of Cena as the character, and it really doesn't look too far off (at least in terms of visuals):
Speaking on hi reported casting, Cena had this to say to ScreenRant four years ago when asked about being "attached" to the games, and how much he actually looks like the character already:
"I think that's the direct attachment and I'm very honored to be attached to that but that is a very fragile franchise. What a blessing to be attached to that, a name like that, and I just hope development does the franchise justice."
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