Shoutbox

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Originally posted by http://www.gamedaily.com/general/article/?source=00001&id=7478&game_id=237

Doom will be making the jump to the big screen, and we talk with id Software CEO, Todd Hollenshead about the film.

With the recent success of Doom 3 on the PC platform, and the upcoming release of Doom 3 on the Xbox, the franchise is all the buzz in the entertainment industry. Crossing the boundaries of gaming, Doom will soon be making the jump to the silver screen. We sat down with id Software CEO, Todd Hollenshead to chat about the upcoming movie.

GameDAILY: What is the latest status of the movie? I know the first deal expired after a year. Can you run through the process?

Todd Hollenshead: The script is close to final and we're very happy with it. Universal is in the process of casting and pre-production now. With every passing day I become more and more confident that we will see DOOM at movie theaters before the end of next year.

GD: Can you also trace the history of the Doom movies, dating back to I believe Spielberg's interest at one point?

TH: I'm not sure Steven was ever officially interested in directing the movie. Last summer Tim and I had a very good meeting with him, showing him the game, and even letting his son play it for a bit, but he never made a serious play for the rights. Ivan Reitman was associated with the very first movie deal, based on DOOM and DOOM II, but the rumor was that he chose to do the Howard Stern flick instead of DOOM. Ironically, I think it was Universal that had those initial rights. Those expired and we licensed the rights to Columbia. When that deal expired I decided I wanted to change how we were handling the movie rights. Ultimately we became a CAA client who worked to get the deal in 2002 with Warner Bros. as a "progress to completion" deal. Progress was being made all along, but when it came time for Warner Bros. to make a big payment to id to retain the rights and basically commit to production, they decided to allow the deal to expire. Enter Univeral, who basically stepped right into Warners' shoes on the deal. They are excited about the movie and want to start filming as soon as is reasonable.

GD: Why has it taken so long for what seems like such an easy conversion from game to film?

TH: Way back there were many false starts and a script that wasn't particularly compelling. When we started all over with CAA, the first thing that was done was getting John Wells and Lorenzo DiBonaventura on the project and they immediately focused on getting a good script in process. I think that's been the big difference this time around.

GD: What are your hopes and goals in terms of bringing Doom to the big screen?

TH: I want to see the movie be true to what the legacy of the DOOM games mean to fans. Scary, intense, lots of action, and consistent with what we've done in the games. However, movies and games are different media, so some things will and should be different. I'm not looking for "DOOM 3: The Movie" and that's not what it will be. The script is not based on the DOOM 3 story, but is based on the DOOM universe, so fans will see plenty in the movie that they will recognize from the game.

GD: Since Doom 3 is a retelling of the original, will the script focus more on the update than the original?

TH: We didn't tie the script to the specific story in the game. There are lots of similarities, but there are many things that are different in a way that's not inconsistent with what we've done in the games. I believe that fans will find the story in the movie fresh and exciting, but still very much DOOM.

GD: Would you say that given the sci-fi and horror aspects, this needs to be a tent pole $100 million type of film?

TH: I'm not a movie guy, so that's really outside of what I do. Lorenzo and John are the producers responsible for making the right decisions with Universal on the budget. And we're all excited about the potential, so they're going to spend what they need to spend to make a great movie.

GD: Given the popularity of the Doom franchise, and the fact that the game is known by people who know nothing about games, do you see this film becoming a franchise with sequels?

TH: I'd certainly like to see that, but the focus now is on making the first film a great flick. Sequels tend to sort themselves out if you do good work with the first film.

GD: Have you given any thought into convergence in the sense that characters from the movie might be included in a future game? (This is currently being done with the Resident Evil movies/games.)

TH: That's definitely something that we would consider as long as it fit in well with what we would want to put in the game. We wouldn't want to do it just as some token throw-in so we can say there's some movie relationship to the game. The game is the cornerstone property for us. A great movie would be amazingly cool, but it's still second place to the games being kick ass.

GD: Do you have a time frame in terms of when you'd like a script completed and when the film might hit theaters?

TH: The script is very close to final already. I'll be ecstatic if it's out by the end of next year. But I'm like other fans: the sooner the better!

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