According to Variety, the USA network has ordered a pilot for an adaptation of David Kushner’s book Masters Of Doom, which details the story of how video game developers John Carmack and John Romero created iconic shooter Doom in the ‘90s. The pilot will be written by Tom Bissell, co-author of The Room book The Disaster Artist, with the Disaster Artist’s movie duo James and Dave Franco acting as executive producers for the Masters Of Doom show (everybody friends with everybody).
For those who don’t know the story behind Doom, the game was made by a studio called id Software (still making Doom games to this day!). Carmack was the programming expert who made Doom play really well, while Romero was creative visionary who quickly let the success of Doom go to his head. Romero went on to co-found Ion Storm, the studio that made the excellent Deus Ex and the awful Daikatana—best remembered for its “John Romero’s about ot make you his bitch” ad campaign.
USA’s Masters Of Doom show is still just a pilot, but if that pilot goes to series and that series gets another season, it will transition into an anthology show about other “seminal moments in the history of video games.” It’ll be like Nat Geo’s Genius, but about people who make video games.