A Quiet Place producers Andrew Form and Brad Fuller have confirmed that they are currently working on a Duke Nukem movie with WWE superstar John Cena on board to play the titular role.
Speaking to Cinemablend about the movie adaptation, Form confirmed Cena's interest in the film and that the two are working with him now on a script for it.
"Yeah, that's what we're working with now. He is. Yes," Form said. "We don't have a script yet, so that is confirmed at this point but if he reads the script and he doesn't like the script I'm sure there's ways that he could pull out, but right now he's our guy."
One of the challenges the producers, and presumably writers, are facing with Duke Nukem is, of course, the character's personality. He's an over-the-top egotistical, sexist jerk who demeans women, makes inappropriate jokes, and eschews any and all forms of political correctness. Form is obviously aware of today's hypersensitive culture and is hoping to create a character that's "fun and lovable" that can take us on a "really fun ride," while hopefully not offending too many people.
Form explained: "You know that having a misogynistic guy in today's world, how do you make that fun and lovable and at the same time he's got to be an incredible badass, so those are the things that we're struggling with and we're going to try and come out with what I hope is a really fun ride. That's the goal, is for it to be a really fun ride."
Form likened the tone of Duke Nukem to that of Fox's Deadpool, which found critical and commercial success at the box office. Form explained that they've learned a lot from the Merc with a Mouth, who shares a similar brand of humor with the bubblegum chewin' video game bada**.
"We are working on Duke Nukem right now. It's going to be about tone. That's about tone," Form said. "How do you nail that tone in the way that Deadpool nailed the tone? I think we have to do that and if we don't get the tone right then we're not going to make the movie."
It certainly won't be easy. In addition to finding the right tone, movies based on video games don't exactly have the best track record at the box office. And the last movie adaptation of a game starring a WWE superstar, that I can think, was DOOM. We all know how that turned out.
Are you interested in seeing a Duke Nukem movie starring John Cena?