According to The Hollywood Reporter, Legendary Entertainment has secured the license to create a film based on the Duke Nukem video games and also tapped the creative minds behind the uber-successful Karate Kid sequel series, Cobra Kai. In addition, Marla Studios, via Jean-Julien Baronnet, will help produce the upcoming project based on the very out-of-tune first-person shooter lead from the 90s. We have seen our fair share of excellent video game adaptations in the past few years. Case in point, nobody expected Sonic the Hedgehog to pull in hundreds of millions at the global box office, but isn’t that what happened? The sequel, in particular, is now the highest-grossing video game movie in the United States. Having said that, we wouldn’t have expected a Duke Nukem film to ever come out. Unlike Sonic, which was and probably still is the mascot of SEGA, Duke only had a few good years, and that was mostly on the back of 1996’s Duke Nukem 3D. To make matters worse, the latest installment, Duke Nukem Forever, was just a bad game through and through, proving that the “macho” character will no longer fly in today’s climate. Still, if Cobra Kai’s creators can bring Daniel-san back into the mainstream spotlight, karate chops and all, who knows? For what it’s worth, this isn’t the first time folks over at Hollywood have expressed interest in a Duke Nukem project. A few years ago, John Cena was reportedly linked to the live-action adaptation, but this never came to fruition. Although we do find it quite curious that Cena’s characterization of Peacemaker - which, by the way, is getting a second season - could serve as a nice template for how to pull off the Duke Nukem character in this day and age. For now, we’ll all have to “settle” with the next season of Cobra Kai, which will premiere on Netflix on September 9.
