Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

1. The Doom movie is in pre-production in Prague. Andrzej Bartkowiak (Cradle 2 the Grave, Romeo Must Die) is directing and Karl Urban ("What business does an elf, man, and a dwarf have in the Ridder-Mark? Speak quickly", LOTR 2) will play the lead. The script is not the same as the script of Doom 3, which is the same as the script of Doom 1. which is the same as Die Hards 1-7, Rambo's 1-12, and every psychopathically sympathy-free mow-'em-down tale ever told ... and I say that as a fan.

The writer, 26-year-old Dave Callaham, has no other screenwriting credits. He gives away a bit of the "plot":

In the movie he [the space marine] is reunited with his sister, a scientist on the based named Samantha (to be played by Die Another Day villainess Rosamund Pike). They were separated after an accident that killed their parents and Callaham says, "They are a little estranged" However, strange things are afoot on the base as alien monsters begin to appear and both brother and sister have to put aside their differences in order to survive. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson will also appear as Sarge, the head space marine...

In the interview, Callaham says that Id agreed to let him put in some real "character development." That's code for "I really want to make a Doom movie that will not only betray your vision, but will totally suck."

The interview got slashdotted. And here's a 145MB video about the history of Doom. I have not downloaded it.

2. The December issue of Computer Gaming World runs a "Duke Nukem Timeline" that points out: "Rovers Spirit and Opportunity were proposed, authorized, announced, designed, launched, and successfully landed on Mars in less time." Yeah, but did NASA have to worry about pixel shading? I don't think so. Ok, well, actually the NASA imaging software probably did, but, Duke Nukem is going to totally kick NASA's ass!