It seems all the chic these days to bring gaming related things to a wider audience. In an intriguing piece of news that came our way, it seems that professional wrestler John Cena may be coming to the big screen as Duke Nukem. Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes studio has been tapped to produce the film. Bay has been instrumental in providing years’ worth of thrills and chills through movies such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the Amityville Horror.
By all reports, Cena is “in talks” to take on the role, though no contracts have been signed, nor has a director been named up to now.
The Nukem video games follow muscular adventures of its titular protagonist, who initially was a mash-up of action-hero tropes. The muscular cigar-chomping figure has been fighting aliens in order to save planet Earth since 1991, when the first game was released.
The project was previously set up at Dimension Films, although the rights lapsed. Paramount picked up the movie rights from Gearbox Software, the company behind the game.
Platinum Dunes is one of the companies behind the Purge action franchise and has produced the Ninja Turtles movies for Paramount. It next has the John Krasinski-directed horror movie A Quiet Place, which is set to open April 6.
Cena has quietly made Paramount his de facto movie home, having appeared in the studio’s Daddy Home 2, which has grossed over $100 million domestically, and is set to appear in Bumblebee, the studio’s Transformers spinoff that Bay produced.
