Duke Nukem, the 1990s video game that helped to usher in the first-person shooter genre is getting the movie treatment.
Legendary Entertainment, the company behind Dune and the Godzilla franchise has secured the movie rights from Gearbox. With Cobra Kai creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg on board to produce, Legendary will also produce, as will Jean Julien Baronnet (Assassin’s Creed) of Marla Studios, which specializes on video game adaptations.
Launched with a self-titled debut in 1991 from Apogee Software, later called 3D Realms, it is $1 billion video game franchise that began life as a platform game for personal computers. When the third game, Duke Nukem 3D, came out in 1996, it became not only a critical hit but one that helped usher in the ubiquity of first-person games for years to come. After laying low for years and stalled development, the franchise came back in 2011, after Gearbox acquired 3D Realms, with Duke Nukem Forever.
Duke Nukem is a 1991 platform game developed and published by Apogee Software for MS-DOS. The 2D, multidirectional scrolling game follows the adventures of fictional character across three episodes of ten levels each. The name was briefly changed to Duke Nukum to avoid copyright issues.
Nukem centers on its titular hero, modeled on certain attributes from 1980s action movies heroes (including catchphrases), who fights an alien invasion in Los Angeles. He travels from strip clubs and movie sets to moon bases and spaceships, dealing with mutated LAPD officers, women used in alien incubators, and the Cycloid Emperor.
