Adi Shankar Acquires Rights To ‘Duke Nukem,’ Describes His Vision For The Project As A “Middle Finger To Everybody”
Adi Shankar, the controversial executive producer and writer behind Netflix’ Castlevania and Devil May Cry, has revealed he has acquired the rights to make something based on titular ’90s shooter — Duke Nukem.
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In an interview with Esquire, Shankar initially discussed his cosplaying as Dante when in the crowd at WWE, his work on Netflix’ Devil May Cry, and a future project.
“I got video games in production. Obviously more Devil May Cry. I’m being approached with different IPs and companies that want to work with me. I bought the rights to Duke Nukem. Not the gaming rights, but I bought it from Gearbox,” Shankar reveals.
When asked what his vision would be, Shankar insisted “It’s a middle finger to everybody. When Duke Nukem blew up, a bunch of people sat around trying to turn it into a brand, when it’s just a middle finger.”
“Duke Nukem can’t be made by a corporation, because the moment a corporation makes Duke Nukem, it’s no longer Duke Nukem. I don’t intend on having anyone tell me what to do on this one.” While Shankar has high hopes, many others have tried and failed to get the babe-saving alien-booting hero onto a silver screen.
Producer Lawrence Kasanoff’s idea failed to manifest under him in the late 1990s, along with his Threshold Entertainment company in 2001. Max Payne producer Scott Faye’s efforts were reported in 2008, where he notably stated “As is the case with all of my game adaptations, I’d rather not make the movie than make a poor adaptation.”
It should be noted that Duke Nukem Forever finally launched in 2011 to a luke-warm reception at best. In April 2017 Gearbox Publishing’s PR Manager — Vincent Slaven — would confirm future games in the series weren’t planned.
Two months later, then-Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford disclosed they were “working on that [a movie],” adding “there’s been a lot of production companies that have come at us, and we are putting a deal right now together with a major motion-picture studio- and I’ll tell you off the record- it’s the exact right people that should be doing a Duke Nukem film.”
Despite being “very likely to be a thing,” future efforts with multiple studios would continue fail. Paramount Studios and Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes — potentially the ideal studio Pitchford gushed about — initially revealed John Cena had been cast for their efforts in 2018.
In 2019, in a now-deleted social media post, Duke’s voice actor Jon St. John would reportedly state in 2019 that there was no new game or film in the works. The Embracer Group insisted a year later a feature film was in the works.
Finally, Legendary Entertainment announced they had acquired the rights for a Duke Nukem film in 2022, being produced by Cobra Kai creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, as well as Assassin’s Creed film producer Jean-Julien Baronnet.
Now the King’s crown falls to Shankar. While he has produced numerous animated videogame adaptions under Netflix as TV series, the interview didn’t provide any details to confirm or deny the same would apply to Duke Nukem. We can only assume Gearbox knows Shankar’s work in recent years, and are likely expecting something in the same vein.
It also seems Shankar has a lot of work ahead of him, as his other upcoming projects include adaptions of Assassin’s Creed, Hyper Light Drifter, and PUBG.
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