LOS ANGELES, CA—A pair of new console games isn’t the only thing cooking for the classic 3D shooter franchise, Duke Nukem. Hollywood producer Scott Faye, who’s readying Max Payne for its October 17th release, is working with 3D Realms’ Scott Miller on a Duke Nukem movie.

“I'm working diligently at making a Duke Nukem movie scenario that will live up to the character and its import in the videogame world,” said Faye. “As is the case with all of my game adaptations, I'd rather not make the movie than make a poor adaptation.”

Faye stuck with that strategy with Max Payne – a game he first saw at E3 in Atlanta and made a verbal commitment to Miller to one day bring it to the big screen. Over 10 years and a couple movie studios later, the movie is hitting theaters with Mark Wahlberg in the starring role.

“With the two new games coming out based on Duke Nukem, I'm working at establishing a Duke film scenario that will compel a studio to finance a feature version,” said Faye. “Certainly, there's a large audience that knows and loves this character.”

Faye said he’s still actively developing the story and he will not shop the film in Hollywood until all the people involved in the project feel solid about where we are creatively.

“More than ever before, I feel that the feature adaptation of Duke Nukem will come to together nicely,” said Faye, who runs Depth Entertainment.

Faye has a production arrangement with Miller’s Radar Group, which will be part of every aspect of the Duke Nukem process, according to Faye.

“We're expanding Duke's ‘storyverse’ in a very significant major way without abandoning or negating any element that's being used to introduce Duke to the next gen platforms,” added Faye.

Faye is also still developing American McGee’s Alice for the big screen. After originally targeting Sarah Michelle Gellar to star in the project for Universal Pictures, Faye said the story is being reworked and Gellar is no longer involved. Director Marcus Nispel (Friday the 13th) is also no longer attached. A new script is in development by original Alice scribes Jon and Erich Hoeberand and a new studio is expected to be announced in the future.

“I love the grown up Alice in a horror story version of Wonderland, and knew instinctively that the project would have a commercial appeal easily discerned by the film studios because the character and mythology are so deeply ingrained into the collective psyche,” said Faye.

As for Max Payne, Faye said 20th Century Fox is committed to the film, which will receive a large opening and a strong marketing push. Wahlberg and director John Moore (Behind Enemy Lines) have already expressed interest in a potential sequel.

“What more do you need to hear than Mark say he'd be interested in doing a sequel,” said Faye. “I would imagine if the film is successful that there'd be a sincere desire to do a sequel. There have been no conversations about what the scenario would be, or whether we'd look at the Max Payne 2 game. Hopefully, this film will find an audience.”

Faye said he’s learned a lot about adapting games over the decade of developing Max Payne and working closely with Miller’s 3D Realms.

“Why go out of your way to acquire an IP is you're not going to use as much of it as you can in the adaptation process? Asked Faye. “Of course, a game is a game and a film is a film, and decisions need to be made, as is the case in any adaptation. But it’s important to be true to the source material.”

Faye is working with Miller’s Radar Group on a number of new cross-media franchises that are being designed from the ground up as games and films.

“I've always viewed content in a way that suggested that creating a universe, or a storyverse, would be exceptionally helpful when it comes to cross-media development,” said Faye. “There are some archetypal properties that have blazed the trail — like Star Wars, which has had novels, comic books, games and films all taking place in the same universe with different characters and stories. That's our agenda — to create IPs that can thrive as games and in other media, but not necessarily have to mimic each other in terms of what story you're telling. Frankly, if I'm going to play a videogame based on a feature film, the last thing I want to do is play through the film narrative. If it's an interesting universe, it's an interesting universe. Be a little bit more creative about it.”

Before founding Depth Entertainment, Faye ran Dark Horse Entertainment. He learned a lot about building franchises from that experience, as well as when to pitch an IP for a cross-media jump.

“One of the elements of the blueprints we're filling in is exactly at what point in time is it best for one of our properties to matriculate to (Hollywood) studios,” said Faye. “We want to take our properties far enough along that they're established creatively. With each project, we're working with established writers and embracing a traditional linear development process simultaneous to the interactive process.”

I often have friends ask me to place a call to some unsuspecting victim and get medieval on their asses in the Duke voice. I once called a radio morning show on the east coast and harassed the DJ's in Duke's voice...they had recorded the call and ended up using parts of the call over and over again on station promos!

And hey, Jon St. John will even record stuff just for you. Well, if you pay him money. For fifty bucks, he'll happily record a message up to 30 seconds in any audio format. And he has "no issues with profanity". That's good.

An Interview with Duke Nukem - Balls of Steel [ZERGWatch via VGB] [Pic]

In what appears to be an unfortunate turn of events, there seems to have been some confusion between what was 'off the record' and what was not. I suppose we're used to dealing with gaming press and not mainstream press. Lesson learned.

While we have internal targets, dates and goals, like every developer, we are not ready to share them. What's amazing about this is that the DBJ must have assumed that we'd actually announce a date to them, and not gaming press, and that even in the light of Scott's quote of "We can't make an official announcement.", the DBJ effectively did that. Lesson learned.

The release date is still 'when it's done', and will be until the appropriate moment. Platforms have not been finalized or announced. You can rest assured that we are moving toward a goal and that the recently released teaser trailer is the start of that process and seeing more of the game, sooner than later.

We apologize to gamers and websites everywhere for this series of events. Sometimes, you can be too trusting of people and assume things that come back to bite you. Lesson learned.

First and foremost, the elusive Duke Nukem Forever is slated for a late 2008 release. As for platforms, Miller explains:

We haven't formally announced any platforms for DNF...But, of course hitting the big three makes the most sense (PC, PS3, 360).

The details are light, but the XBLA version will feature everything you'd expect, including online multiplayer, co-op (unspecified if that is online or not), and your typical scoreboards and achievements. 3D Realms is negotiating with Microsoft to get a release window of "sometime this year" on this title as well.

But this XBLA download makes me wonder—I've always considered LIVE's retro titles to be designed for "glory days" gamers who were looking to recapture magic of years gone by. How many of our younger readers use the service to download games that they never originally played, like Tapper or Doom? How many of you will download Duke Nukem 3D if you like the new version?

'Duke Nukem Forever' confirmed for 2008, coming to home consoles [Dallas Business Journal via Maxconsole]

Wanna hear something funny? Duke Nukem Forever. LOL. Everyone's favorite PC vaporware is in almost a decade in the making and will be out "when it's done." Still, we so wanna hear about it so we can snicker. Says 3D Realms honcho Scott Miller:

Microsoft has a pretty tight lid about what they're putting on the system now. They're trying to not hit the same genres over and over again, and since Doom just came out on Live, they probably won't want Duke 3D on Live anytime soon. I've had some casual talks about this, but you never know. We'd like to see that happen, it's just a matter of making it happen.

Forget that OLD stuff, we want DNF! We have unrealistic expectations. Disappoint us. Please!!

The way I see it was when Duke 3D came out it was an unknown brand we only had the two sidescrollers. The fact that it was a great game made it a huge hit. As long as we make a great game, then I feel that Duke Nukem Forever is going to do the same thing.

Did you hear that?! DID YOU?

Duke Nukem Forever, I guess you could consider our biggest problem. It's hard to argue against that.

Hard indeed, hard indeed. Brian Ashcraft

Duke Nukem Forever BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA [Gamasutra]

Gory gaming makes players desensitized to violence say three psychology professors. Their recent study had 257 students play Duke Nukem and Mortal Kombat for 20 minutes. Then, once an endless stream of questions regarding "finishing moves" and speculation on Duke Nukem Forever ceased, the students then watched a 10 minute clip of 100 percent real violent acts. The students had their heart rates measured before, during and after each session. These were then compared with a control group of students that watched the same video without muddling through those retro titles.

The findings? The video game group had higher physical responses to the games than the clip, and those reactions were similar to those of the non-gaming group when watching the 10 minutes of real gore. Good to see researchers proving that humans react to filmed brutality the same way to game onslaught. How bout next time having them watch a violent clip for 20 minutes and then play video games for 10 minutes? Brian Ashcraft

More Here [1Up]

The private diaries of Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold have been published on the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News websites as a 945-page PDF, and include references to inspirations ranging from Nazism, terrorist attacks, world wars and riots, to DOOM and Duke Nukem.

The video game references that I've read in excerpts (not having had time to consume the entire document yet) paint Harris more as an obsessive fanboy, period, than particularly driven by the game itself.

"My love for a computer game called Doom. Doom is such a big part of my life and no one I know can urecreate environments in Doom as good as me. I know almost anything these is to know about that game, so I believe that separates me from the rest of the world... Doom is so burned into my head my thoughts usually have something to do with the game... the fact is I love that game and if others tell me, "hey it's just a game" I say "hey, I don't care"

Verbatim blather from every con-trolling, cosplaying nutcase I've ever known (substitute any fandom for the word DOOM and you'll see what I mean), but this is undoubtedly going to be snatched up and trumpeted by every game-hating pundit in the country.

I have always sympathized with Harris and Klebold, all the way up to the point where they actually started shooting: when that happens, you cross the line, and you become one of them.

As a friend of mine once said when we were discussing the bitter urge for revenge, "Fuck the ones who snap." It is far nobler to survive and dominate, than to destroy. Eliza gauger

Columbine Diaries Contain Game References [GamePolitics]

Since Duke Nukem is always good for shits and giggle, the game gets no respect. So leave it to a metalhead to give Duke what he deserves with this rockin' rendition of the game's theme song. Guitarist Chris Kline writes, "I used influences from the Megadeth version, the original, and my own twists to come up with the final composition." All tracks, including the backing, were played by him. Hail to the king, baby! Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Vertex] Thanks, Alex!

While I loathed the original "Wassup" Budweiser ad, this fan-made version staring game characters is worth a post. Heck, anything that features Duke Nukem sticking out his tongue is. Brian Ashcraft

Budweiser [Official Site]

Here in one article are all the sad stories of these doomed games, with a trace of hope squeezed in here and there:

Still, Telltale decided to make a new game from scratch with Purcell. In fact, Game Tap announced at E3 this year that the new Sam and Max game will be released as episodic content via its network (again, a pretty funny trailer was released at the show). So while Freelance Police may have died, Sam and Max will return.

I'm a little disappointed to see the new Sam and Max is all 3d. I would love to see a return to the gorgeous cartooning that LucasArts used to use for those games.

And we're still hearing about DNF now and then, too! Although at this point, we've been waiting so long and hoping so hard that anything they give us will simply not be enough.

We have gone too long un-Duked, you and I. There is probably nothing for it. Eliza Gauger

The Best Games Never Published [Twitch Guru]

We don't know where this came from, but it's pretty funny. A small group of stones as they might theoretically be rendered in videogames from Asteroids to Zelda. And there's space for you to provide your own! Seriously, if you have any idea where these came from, let us know. We like to give credit where it's due.

Update: The folks at http://www.4chan.org lovingly crafted these pebbles. Bravo!

The BBC reports that Belgian researchers have proved the common sense adage that more sleep is good for your brain. Volunteers played Duke Nukem, going on place-finding missions. Players had to find various locals as scientists mapped their brain activity with MRI. Researchers learned that the part of the brain involved with memory and direction was most active when gamers had to retrieve memories to find their destinations. Folks that had slept were automatically able to retrieve info, while the sleep-deprived ones had to think harder. "It looks like sleep accelerates this normal process. It looks like the memories are reprocessed during sleep," said a Belgian researcher. Good to know, but Duke Nukem?!

Full Story Here [BBC]