Masters Of Doom Set For Film Treatment

Author: by David Jenkins, Simon Carless

Film industry trade paper Variety is reporting that cable network Showtime is planning to make a biopic based on David Kushner’s acclaimed 2003 book Masters of Doom, which details the creation of Id Software and focuses on the relationship between leading game industry creators John Carmack and John Romero. Naren Shankar, the executive producer of CBS’s CSI, and script writer on series such as The Outer Limits and Farscape, will combine both roles for his work on the picture. Shankar claims he first became aware of the book after reading a review in an engineering journal. No casting details have yet been suggested for who would play either of the two lead roles. In related news, Universal Pictures recently announced that the Doom movie, which stars former wrestler The Rock, co-starring Karl Urban and directed by Cradle 2 the Grave helmer Andrzej Bartkowiak, has been put back from an August 5th release date to October 21st in North America. However, the movie has angered some online fans for appearing to contradict the basic tenets of the Doom storyline, with the action apparently not being set on Mars and the demons from hell of the games being replaced with humans sporting a mutagenic virus. Nonetheless, scriptwriter Dave Callaham commented, in an open letter to fans late last year: "Let me assure you, though, that the themes and elements that you love about Doom are ALL represented strongly in the film... just with some new twists." The Rock also let slip, in an interview on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, that he will be toting a BFG weapon in the movie, although this now apparently stands for Bio-Force Gun, as opposed to any other more obscene definition for the acronym.