Another popular video game might see its live-action adaptation soon, and it is Doom, reportedly in the works for Peacock. It seems as though the video game movie and TV show genre is well and truly alive.
We’ve seen the likes of the Sonic movies, Netflix’s The Witcher, HBO’s The Last Of Us and most recently, Illumination’s The Super Mario Bros Movie. Audiences seem to be in the mood for more of these video game-based movies and TV shows.
Back in 2005, Universal Pictures gave Doom a shot for a live-action movie based on the game of the same name from id Software. The film starred Karl Urban, Rosamund Pike, Razaaq Adoti, and Dwayne Johnson, who was still credited at the time as The Rock.
Basically, the movie follows marines who are sent on a rescue mission to Mars. The team encounters demon-like beings in a facility where scientists and researchers inadvertently ripped some sort of portal open.
Romeo Must Die director Andrzej Bartkowiak helmed the first Doom adaptation, and it, unfortunately, bombed at the box office. It was just a fraction shy of getting its $60M production budget back, closing its worldwide box office run at $58.8M.
The movie failed to perform well with the critics and moviegoers. Rotten Tomatoes shows that the movie ended up with a mere 18% rating on the Tomatometer with a 34% audience score. Critics’ Consensus states:
The FPS sections are sure to please fans of the video game, but lacking in plot and originality to please other moviegoers.
Fourteen years later, Universal released its reboot, Doom: Annihilation, as a direct-to-video movie directed by Tony Giglio. Amy Mason, Dominic Mafham, Luke Allen-Gale, and Nina Bergman starred in the film.
The reboot got a better critical reception, getting a 43% score on Rotten Tomatoes, but the film got a lower audience score of 15%. Interestingly, game creator id Software clearly stated that it was never involved in the development of the reboot.
Doom Gets Third Shot This Time For Peacock Series
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In an article from Giant Freakin Robot, they state that Universal may just be trying to make a Doom movie for the third time as a live-action series adaptation of the game. It’s interesting how adapting video games into movies or TV shows has become so popular since 2020.
What’s more interesting is the idea that the series in development will actually hard reboot the franchise and ignore the first two movies. Given that the original video game doesn’t have much plot to go on beyond a Doomguy or Doom Slayer, who is an unnamed space marine fighting off innumerable demons and undead to save the Earth from invasion.
It would be interesting to know how much brainstorming this upcoming series’ writers’ room had to do in order to come up with a more intricate and less convoluted storyline for a Doom series. It definitely calls for stories beyond the “monster of the week” type of series.
The binge-watching culture that grew through the years of the pandemic will also have certain expectations. Although, lately, streaming services have followed the one or two episodes per week release. Slowly the whole season drop of a release is also fading away. Nevertheless, that is still an option for new titles in the streaming library.
Peacock is home to Poker Face, the mystery-of-the-week series from Knives Out director Rian Johnson. It is also where Taylor Sheridan, John Linson’s Yellowstone, can be streamed together with the world it has begun to expand on, as well as Nida Manzoor’s comedy series We Are Lady Parts.
Doom Gets Hard Reboot As Series On Peacock
Credit: Universal Pictures
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Disregarding the previous movies for the live-action series in development for Universal’s streaming platform will be a decisive and definitive move. They mean to create the series from a clean slate. Thus, it may also mean that they will utilize any or all available resources under the franchise.
The video game series is still remembered by gamers quite fondly. Many see it as the pioneer for first-person shooter games because of its popularity, novels, comic books, and even board games told its story. They are probably already looking into these to draw a plot worthy of a series.
Doom is not the only video game TV series under Peacock. They have also developed Twisted Metal based on Sony’s PlayStation game franchise. The series already wrapped filming back in August 2022.
It stars Anthony Mackie (Captain America: New World Order), Stephanie Beatriz (In The Heights), Thomas Haden Church (Spider-Man: No Way Home), Richard Cabral (Mayans M.C.), Will Arnet (Murderville), and Samoa Joe. Peacock’s Twisted Metal is set to release sometime this year.
What do you think of a new live-action adaptation of the video game Doom for Peacock? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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