USA Network has confirmed a pilot order for Masters of Doom, a half novel, half journalistic piece by David Kushner that details the story of John Carmack and John Romero, creators of the video game Doom.
Published in 2003 by Random House, the book details the developers' joint success in the founding of id Software to their transformation from best friends to bitter rivals due to their clashing personalities and ideologies. Masters of Doom narrates their inevitable part in shaping the video game industry (and its subsequent cultural impact) in the 90s by creating what is considered the most important game for first-person shooters.
At the helm of producing the drama series will be James Franco, Dave Franco, Vince Jolivette, and Elizabeth Haggard from Ramona Films. Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Eric Robinson, and Jeremy Bell will receive executive producing credits and D.J. Goldberg as co-executive producer through management and production firm The Gotham Group. Author David Kushner will also serve as producer.
Tom Bissell, a household name in the video-game industry, will be the primary writer and also serve as an executive producer for Masters of Doom. Known for his award-winning work on Gears of War, Bissell also worked on giant video game franchises such as Battlefield and Uncharted, for which he has writing credits. Bissell is also an accomplished author with nine books under his belt, such as Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter. He also co-authored The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, The Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made with Greg Sestero, which was based on universally panned cult film The Room. The New York Times bestseller was later adapted into a critically acclaimed film by the Franco brothers in 2017.
Should the drama series be successful and get picked up, it will be set as an anthology with the story of the original Doom being the first installment. Subsequent seasons will then tackle and be based on pivotal moments in the history of video games.
The release time frame for the drama series based on Masters of Doom has not been announced yet.
