USA Network Orders Masters Of Doom Pilot

Published: June 28, 2019 1:24 PM /

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DOOM Original Box Art

Deadline is reporting that a pilot for a Masters of Doom adaptation has been ordered by USA Network. An adaptation of the book of the same name, the story follows John Romero and John Carmack’s founding of id Software and the development of such classics as Doom and Wolfenstein 3D.

The production companies include James and Dave Franco’s Ramona Films, The Gotham Group, and UCP. Deadline also reports that it is being planned as an anthology series, which would feature a new cast and story each season, similar to shows such as True Detective or The Terror. The original book was published in 2003 and written by author David Kushner, who is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone. Gears of War producer and The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made co-author Tom Bissel will be the series’ writer and executive producer.

id Software was founded in 1991 in Dallas, Texas by John Romero, John Carmack, Adrian Carmack, and Tom Hall. Under them, id made some of the most notable games of the ’90s, including Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake, the first of which is one of the earliest examples of an FPS. In 2009, id was formally sold to Zenimax Media. Over the years, most of the founders left the company for a variety of reasons, including Romero being fired from the company in 1996 due to issues with Quake’s development and a deteriorating relationship with John Carmack. Tom Hall had previously resigned in 1993 during Doom's development, while Adrian Carmack was fired in 2003 after the release of Doom 3 and the situation led to a protracted legal battle. John Carmack remained with id the longest of the founders, staying until 2013, when he joined Oculus (now owned by Facebook) as their CTO, where he still works to this day.


Quick Take

It’ll be interesting to see how Masters of Doom performs given the subject matter and that it’s on a cable network instead of a streaming service, which seems like it would be a better fit. Given the Franco brothers and Bissel’s involvement, we have somewhat of an idea of how it may turn out based on the theatrical film The Disaster Artist, which was based on Bissel’s book. Deadline is also reporting that this is a pilot and not a series order, so this may not be made into a full series if USA Network declines.

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I've been a lover of video games, writing, and technology for as long as I remember. I have a B.A. in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana… More about John