Scott Miller Nukes Our Duke Movie Fears

Thu, Sep 25, 2008

Early this month, when Depth Entertainment's Scott Faye told Kotaku that work was finally commencing on a Duke Nukem movie, the collective reaction at GameCyte was one of disbelief.

It wasn't that there was anything necessarily wrong with a Duke Nukem action flick; to the contrary, we figure the Duke would make for a spectacularly forgettable summer 'blockbuster ' with a minimum of prep work. What we were concerned with was the fact that the production was being overseen by Scott Miller's Radar Group, a firm designed to cultivate new intellectual property and property with the potential to become a “storyverse” a la Lord of the Rings, with characters, storylines and the like that could translate well to film and other cross-media adaptation.

In our opinion, Duke Nukem was neither new nor Gandalf.

But who wants to hear our opinion when Scott Miller can just explain things for himself? Read on to hear how 3D Realms head honcho and Radar Group CCO Scott Miller intends to turn Duke into a worthy movie star -- and why his early films have taken nearly a decade to get off the ground.

GameCyte: The Duke Nukem movie has been in the works for nearly as long as Duke Nukem Forever: over 10 years. Could you please tell us how the film went from Threshold to Dimension, why production went silent and how it ended up back in your hands now?

Scott Miller: The reality is that there's been no Duke movie "in the works" for nearly eight years. It's true that Threshold Entertainment acquired the rights, but there was never a good script written, and the project never got off the ground. Several years ago Threshold lost its right to the project. In just the past few months we've decided to pursue a movie again, this time through Depth Entertainment, the production studio behind the Max Payne film. We love that the Max film appears to be a high-quality production and appears to capture the vibe of the games. The most recent trailer really brings home this point.

GameCyte: In August of '98, you announced that 3D Realms and Threshold had completed a compelling story draft after six months of work, and in March 2001 when the Dimension deal was signed, we heard that Duke would be defending Earth from a alien ship on collision course. Is that still the basic concept, or are we looking at a new film?

SM: We're taking an all-new direction this time around. I haven't seen that old material in years, and can't even remember what it was about. So, we're starting from scratch on a story. Our first order of business is to create a Duke Nukem storyverse, which is similar to a story bible, and fleshes out all of the characters, their histories, motives, and gives a very detailed description of the Duke Nukem "universe." Once this is created, we then have the foundation to create a story and a script. This storyverse document will also be useful for future projects.

GameCyte: Radar Group, you've said, is all about cultivating "storyverses" and leveraging them across multiple media. But to be honest, while I've always thought there should be a Max Payne movie (and thought A Man Apart was that movie when I saw its trailer), I'd never thought Duke had much of a story or much of a universe. What's changed?

SM: When Duke 3D was released, it was thin on story and characters, no doubt. Max Payne and Prey, though, had better stories and better characters. This is both a function of our growing industry, as well as our growing desire to give more compelling context to all of the gameplay and action. So, by building a storyverse for Duke Nukem, we're bringing that franchise into modern times. A lot of this is going to be seen in Duke Nukem Forever, because we have several key characters besides Duke, including Bombshell and General Graves. And Duke's personality and history will be more prominent in the game.

The bottom line is that Duke Nukem was created before we had the storyverse idea nailed down. Max Payne was our first game that was purposely built as a storyverse -- in large part as a result of the lessons we learned from making Duke Nukem 3D. So, while Duke comes across as a little shallow now, that's only because we haven't released a modern day product that fleshes things out like in recent games.

GameCyte: Scott Faye told Kotaku, "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."

There, it sounds like he's implying two things. First, that Duke Nukem will appear on consoles... and not just as an XBLA release. Has something like that been finalized? Second, he makes it sound like the movie's plot or setting might tie into that of Duke Nukem Forever. Can we expect anything of the sort?

SM: Scott Faye is alluding to the idea that we're adding a lot of story and character material to the franchise, yet at the same time, we're not going to change anything that already exists. For example, we're not going to change Duke's style of deadpanned humor, nor his raw distrust and hate for aliens. So, the key pillars of Duke's storyverse will remain, but there's a lot of new stuff we can add to the storyverse to bring it up to date with the times and give us a lot of new material to play with on future projects, be they films or new games.

The movie, by the way, will not tie into Duke Nukem Forever. It will be a standalone story.

GameCyte: You've pitched Radar Group as a valuable proposition for third parties -- smaller developers -- who need your support to nurture their original IP. But all the titles and movies that Radar Group has so far revealed (save Incarnate, perhaps) are former 3D Realms projects. Not to knock any of these titles, but what do you have in the works that will serve as a true testbed for the Radar Group model?

SM: I think Radar has announced three game projects, Prey 2, Earth No More and Incarnate. You're right that Prey is a hand-over from 3D Realms. Earth No More was barely in production with 3D Realms when it was shifted to Radar, so most of the world will see this game as strictly a Radar release. And, we have other unannounced projects that have no ties to 3D Realms.

The short story is that it helps get Radar off the ground to have Prey 2 under its belt. But all of the other titles are original.

GameCyte: Can you tell me more about Incarnate and its developer?

SM: There's not much to tell, yet. The original idea came from Frank Hannah, who wrote the acclaimed movie, The Cooler. Highly recommend it, btw. Incarnate was a project that Frank was working on strictly as another film. Scott Faye was working with Frank to develop it, and sent a few pages of the story my way for some feedback. I'm usually really critical of the stuff Scott sends my way, so he's used me over the years as a no-BS sounding board. This project immediately had me think it could be the foundation for a great game, and a few months later Radar had a deal in place. Incarnate asks the question, "Does evil ever die?" But I can't say anything more about the story. A major studio is interested in producing an Incarnate film, and of course Radar is working on the game project. What's interesting is that the game will have considerably more story depth than the film, simple because the game script will be about 250 pages, and the film script just 100 pages -- typically, a page of script equals one minute of film time. So, the good news is that the game and the film will stand on their own and each deliver a compelling, unique experience. And, we have no interest in releasing them simultaneously, such that one is compromised to meet the release date of the other.

GameCyte: How has the Max Payne film changed between today and 2001, when Scott Faye's Collision Entertainment first bought the rights?

SM: There have been several scripts, but only the most recent writer captured the essence of the games. The bottom-line is that it's really really hard to make a film based on a game. We've seen too many examples that prove this, with doomed results. Working with Scott Faye over the years has been a unique experience because Faye is driven first and foremost by the idea that the film must be a great product on its own, and not just rely on the success of the game. There was never any thought to settle on an okay script. This will remain the driving method of operation behind all of the films Depth brings to market.

GameCyte: How do you feel about Max Payne finally coming to theaters, seven years later?

SM: Really good! But only because I know we pulled off something extremely difficult. I wouldn't be so happy if I knew that the film was Hitman quality. There's little to be proud of with a product that doesn't represent the game properly.

GameCyte: We know how you feel about sequels, but Mark Wahlberg is apparently interested in making another Max Payne movie. What do you say to that?

SM: I love sequels, as long as they're done with the same quality and care as the original. As for Wahlberg, I hope he has the chance to make a sequel, and in fact I predict he will. He's said that so far, Max Payne is his favorite movie role. I think that says a lot about the original concept as it was developed in the late 90's, and the quality of the film script. I mean, the guy was amazing in Departed, Boogie Nights and other films. It's mind-blowing that Max Payne is his favorite among the many he's done.

GameCyte: Lastly, any word on Max Payne 3?

SM: Honestly, I am in the dark about the game. I'm not even sure Max 3 is being made. The bottom line is that neither 3D Realms or Remedy has anything to do with future games, and Rockstar has nothing to do with the film side. I offered to be creatively involved with Max 3 several years ago, if they wanted to make another game. But I was turned down. The good news, though, is that when the game does come out, it'll be the first time I get to play a Max game as a fan, not knowing anything about the story, the locations, or anything else. I look forward to having that experience.

GameCyte: Thank you so much for your time, Scott.

Special thanks to Radar Group's Casey Lynch for helping to provide this interview opportunity.