[MusicallyInspired]

Arnie sounds too much of a joke.

[NUKEMDAVE]

I think John Cena can pull off that classic Duke look from the Zero Hour artwork very well. The fact that they want someone who has that sort of look tells me they want to go with that classic look in the movie, not the modern DNF look. I can't complain there. He's got the chiseled face and dimpled chin.

[Never Forgotten]

NUKEMDAVE, on 05 February 2018 - 06:52 PM, said:

I think John Cena can pull off that classic Duke look from the Zero Hour artwork very well. The fact that they want someone who has that sort of look tells me they want to go with that classic look in the movie, not the modern DNF look. I can't complain there. He's got the chiseled face and dimpled chin.

I don't know... I just can't see him in the role. 😉

[Zaxx]

NUKEMDAVE, on 05 February 2018 - 06:52 PM, said:

I think John Cena can pull off that classic Duke look from the Zero Hour artwork very well. The fact that they want someone who has that sort of look tells me they want to go with that classic look in the movie, not the modern DNF look. I can't complain there. He's got the chiseled face and dimpled chin.

Yep, I'd say Cena is pretty much perfect for the role as far as realistic casting choices go. Really, seeing a 40 year old dude (just the right age for Duke) being considered instead of some stupid origin story with a 25 year old (my God, Alden Ehrenreich looks terrible as Han Solo in the new trailer) is just great.

[Never Forgotten]

Honestly, I wouldn't mind a younger Duke, the problem is that no one who looks like Duke is young. I might be a bit biased, though, since I really want to play Duke. But, as I've been saying for years, to friends and family, John Cena is a great choice for Duke, and I wish him luck with the role.

[Zaxx]

Never Forgotten, on 06 February 2018 - 01:17 AM, said:

Honestly, I wouldn't mind a younger Duke

Honestly what I protest is not a younger Duke, what I protest is steering away from the character and to me Duke is a 35-40 year old badass action hero, that's the character. It's the idea of the origin story that really doesn't work for some characters simply because what they are is not that complex so what they were before they became the thing you know is not interesting. A young Duke is like the movie studio asking you "do you want to see how Duke became a badass action hero?" and my answer to that is "no, I don't, I want to see Duke being a badass action hero, I don't care how he shot his first alien or how he made it rain for the first stripper." It's the same how I feel about the new Han Solo movie where Disney is aking me "do you want to see the young Han Solo?" and my answer is "no, I don't, I already saw that character in three movies and I can't imagine how a version that is 10 years younger than that could be interesting just because he's younger".

This trend is coming from comic book movies but the thing is that a superhero's origin is actually interesting, something you want to see. You want to see how little Bruce Wayne became Batman because why and how he became Batman has a lot to do with the character, his origin is one of the most important aspects of his whole persona and it really is fun to see the Year One Batman. How Duke became a badass or how Han Solo became a rogue smuggler is not interesting and even the movies that manage to do that stuff well are avoiding the problem instead of solving it. For example I really like the 3 Star Trek movies with Chris Pine's young Captain Kirk, I'd say that the first two are good films while I'd call Star Trek Beyond just a great Star Trek movie in its own right but really the first movie is being held back by all the boring exposition explaining how Kirk became captain of the Enterprise. The story outline of Star Trek 2009 is clear: you start with a young Kirk and end up with Captain Kirk but young Kirk is not that interesting so JJ Abrams quickly gets the exposition out of his system and even though Kirk is promoted to captain only in the last scene they make him act like a captain starting from the second act of the film. That's the only way they could make young Kirk interesting... by making him act like the "real, adult" James T. Kirk after some boring soul searching. That boring soul searching at the beginning is what we don't need.

[Never Forgotten]

Duke was 28 in Duke 3D. So he was youngish.

[MusicallyInspired]

Um.......what?

[axl]

Cena looks indeed like a very good candidate to play Duke.

If he was younger, I'd probably say Arnold at the time of Last Action Hero. Jack Slater even has pretty much the same clothes: red t-shirt, jeans and boots

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[PsychoGoatee]

Arnold is one of the most entertaining action heroes ever, no doubt. The Duke Nukem 2 voice is funny, this might sound crazy, but Arnold can't do an American accent. I know I sound crazy here. I'd still see that movie though, sure would've been fun to have. Probably better than Dolph Lundgren's Punisher movie for B-movie night.

The Cena casting is fun to me, could work. Hopefully he has the sunglasses on at least 60% of the time. Ideally 100%, but I'm guessing this will end up being kind of the Stallone Judge Dredd of Duke Nukem movies. Don't know if the studio would be bold enough to keep the sunglasses on the whole time, like how Judge Dredd keeps his helmet on the whole time in that great lower budget Karl Urban movie for example. Would be cool if they did though.

[axl]

PsychoGoatee, on 06 February 2018 - 10:12 AM, said:

The Duke Nukem 2 voice is funny, this might sound crazy, but Arnold can't do an American accent. I know I sound crazy here.

Haha, never noticed it

[Never Forgotten]

MusicallyInspired, on 06 February 2018 - 05:02 AM, said:

Um.......what?

Duke's fictional birthday is April 9, 1967. That would put him 28, turning 29 when Duke 3D was made.

[K1n9_Duk3]

Never Forgotten, on 06 February 2018 - 01:46 PM, said:

Duke's fictional birthday is April 9, 1967. That would put him 28, turning 29 when Duke 3D was made.

Except the events in Duke Nukem 1 happened in the year 1997. It says so right in the game's story section. In the introduction/story sequence of Duke Nukem II, Duke mentions defeating Dr. Proton last year, which means that in Duke Nukem 3D (which begins more or less directly after the final boss fight in Duke II), the year would be 1998 in Duke's universe. If the birthday you mentioned is correct, that would make Duke 30 or 31 in Duke 3D.

[Micky C]

K1n9_Duk3, on 06 February 2018 - 01:59 PM, said:

Except the events in Duke Nukem 1 happened in the year 1997. It says so right in the game's story section. In the introduction/story sequence of Duke Nukem II, Duke mentions defeating Dr. Proton last year, which means that in Duke Nukem 3D (which begins more or less directly after the final boss fight in Duke II), the year would be 1998 in Duke's universe. If the birthday you mentioned is correct, that would make Duke 30 or 31 in Duke 3D.

There's been discussions like this before. The conclusion was that the timeline is arbitrary and people shouldn't put too much thought into it. Not to mention the calendar in Duke 3D clearly places the game after the year 2000.

[MajorTom 2417]

Micky C, on 06 February 2018 - 02:28 PM, said:

There's been discussions like this before. The conclusion was that the timeline is arbitrary and people shouldn't put too much thought into it. Not to mention the calendar in Duke 3D clearly places the game after the year 2000.

That, and Duke was shown posing with the 3D Realms team that created his own game in a photo on the back of the DN3D, so he's clearly responsible for his own franchise creation.....

[Never Forgotten]

K1n9_Duk3, on 06 February 2018 - 01:59 PM, said:

Except the events in Duke Nukem 1 happened in the year 1997. It says so right in the game's story section. In the introduction/story sequence of Duke Nukem II, Duke mentions defeating Dr. Proton last year, which means that in Duke Nukem 3D (which begins more or less directly after the final boss fight in Duke II), the year would be 1998 in Duke's universe. If the birthday you mentioned is correct, that would make Duke 30 or 31 in Duke 3D.

It's been forever since I played Duke Nukem 1, so in all honesty, I actually forgot it said that. Even so, what I said still remains. Duke could be played by someone as young as 26-28 as long as they look the part. But as I've said before, I could be biased about that.

[K1n9_Duk3]

Micky C, on 06 February 2018 - 02:28 PM, said:

Not to mention the calendar in Duke 3D clearly places the game after the year 2000.

I'm not sure "clearly" is the word I would use to describe something that's literally three pixels tall in that texture, but whatever.

[Hank]

This is from 3D Realms' old website.



Duke died at age 28.

[Never Forgotten]

Hank, on 06 February 2018 - 03:39 PM, said:

This is from 3D Realms' old website.



Duke died at age 28.

Why have I never seen this piece of pure gold?

[Hank]

@ Never Forgotton
I simply posted this one, because you too figured Duke can be ~28.

Game based movies, not sure, but I think Duke should be in this age group. Not too young, just old and experienced enough to kick ass.

[X-Vector]

Micky C, on 06 February 2018 - 02:28 PM, said:

Not to mention the calendar in Duke 3D clearly places the game after the year 2000.

https://forums.3drea...ead.php?t=28832

December 2007 would indicate Duke Nukem's age is 40 during Duke3D, which gels with the game's cover art.
It also makes sense, because Duke was clearly meant to emulate the hard-nosed, grizzled and sometimes jaded action film characters of the '80s and '90s that were portayed by actors who were all in their 30s at the time and 40 or older when D3D was released (e.g. Willis, Russell, Schwarzenegger and Eastwood).

[Zaxx]

X-Vector, on 07 February 2018 - 02:13 AM, said:

https://forums.3drea...ead.php?t=28832

December 2007 would indicate Duke Nukem's age is 40 during Duke3D, which gels with the game's cover art.
It also makes sense, because Duke was clearly meant to emulate the hard-nosed, grizzled and sometimes jaded action film characters of the '80s and '90s that were portayed by actors who were all in their 30s at the time and 40 or older when D3D was released (e.g. Willis, Russell, Schwarzenegger and Eastwood).

So he's 52 in DNF? Damn, he looks good for that age.

[Never Forgotten]

X-Vector, on 07 February 2018 - 02:13 AM, said:

https://forums.3drea...ead.php?t=28832

December 2007 would indicate Duke Nukem's age is 40 during Duke3D, which gels with the game's cover art.
It also makes sense, because Duke was clearly meant to emulate the hard-nosed, grizzled and sometimes jaded action film characters of the '80s and '90s that were portayed by actors who were all in their 30s at the time and 40 or older when D3D was released (e.g. Willis, Russell, Schwarzenegger and Eastwood).

I've always had it in my head that Duke was in his early to mid 30s in Duke 3D. It seems right to me.

[MusicallyInspired]

That's older than 28, which was your earlier claim.

[Never Forgotten]

I know. Before I knew there was an actual birthdate for Duke, I thought he was about 30-35.

[necroslut]

While Duke I is stated to take place in 1997, Duke II and 3D (and anything else before DNF) are set in a deliberately vague "future" that is clearly further off than 1998 - George said giving a specific year had been a mistake - so any birthdate doesn't really mean much because there is no later year to compare it to. And even if they did state his age as 28 or something else at one point, other bits from the same time give his age as unknown or undisclosed.

That said, the action stars his look is based on were all well past 28 when they did their iconic roles, and he certainly doesn't look 28 either. Likewise, Lo Wang's age was listed as 45 in some interview, but he clearly looks older and is modeled after people who were older and was - you could say - meant to be older, just they didn't pay much attention to things like that. Same goes with Duke.

There really is no Duke timeline - Duke 3D takes place during no year and Duke has no age, and that's all deliberate. And it doesn't need it, because it's an action video game and not a retelling of historical events. Setting it in a vague timespace gives freedom to make an actual game, and keeping the details of the character vague is likewise useful to fit him to what the game needs. Which is why a Duke prequel is such an awful idea. A movie adaptation should ideally take the same approach.

[Zaxx]

Anyway the idea of having a prequel and laughing at it would be great in a Duke game or a movie. For example a stupid animated series called something like "Kid Duke" that exists in the world of Duke and feels like Captain Baseball Bat Boy from Max Payne 3 or like the "Rated R" cartoons of GTA. Duke prequel: the Adult Swim version.

[dinwitty]

I am glad someone is serious in making a Duke Nukem movie with all these game movies gatting made, something can be done even doing full CG.
Its curious using John Cena but they should find a better match even an unknown actor. Star wars was done with actors I never knew. But you can do things with makeup, and you could overdub Jon St Johns voice in the movie. You can also digitally alter Cena's face, The idea of a DN movie has been around for ages, now someone is taking the real direction to do it...why not. Lets see what you can do but please do get it right.

[pacman]

MusicallyInspired, on 05 February 2018 - 06:35 PM, said:

Arnie sounds too much of a joke.

which is why i said arnie with jon's dub

[Micky C]

dinwitty, on 10 February 2018 - 04:44 AM, said:

I am glad someone is serious in making a Duke Nukem movie with all these game movies gatting made, something can be done even doing full CG.
Its curious using John Cena but they should find a better match even an unknown actor. Star wars was done with actors I never knew. But you can do things with makeup, and you could overdub Jon St Johns voice in the movie. You can also digitally alter Cena's face, The idea of a DN movie has been around for ages, now someone is taking the real direction to do it...why not. Lets see what you can do but please do get it right.

Star Wars was a gamble in that it did something new, and it payed off. Any genre a Duke movie would be in has been done countless times before, and so they need every advantage they can get to help it stand out.

Besides, having a big name over unknown actors doesn't just help draw in viewers, it also makes investors happy, meaning the movie can get a bigger budget, more advertising, a wider distribution etc.