Adi Shankar Reveals His Vision For 'Duke Nukem' Project
Castlevania and Devil May Cry Executive Producer Adi Shankar revealed he owns the TV and movie rights to Duke Nukem and shared what his vision for the project is.
In an interview with Esquire, Shankar was asked what he’s working on next. He answered, “Obviously more Devil May Cry. I'm being approached with different IPs and companies that want to work with me. I bought the rights to Duke Nukem. Not the gaming rights, but I bought it from Gearbox.”
As for what his vision for Duke Nukem is, he relayed, “It's a middle finger to everybody. When Duke Nukem blew up, a bunch of people sat around trying to turn it into a brand, when it's just a middle finger.”
“Duke Nukem can't be made by a corporation, because the moment a corporation makes Duke Nukem, it's no longer Duke Nukem,” he added. “I don't intend on having anyone tell me what to do on this one.”
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Not only did Shankar reveal he’s working on a Duke Nukem project, but he revealed that one of his overarching goals with all of his projects is to make animation “cool.”
He explained, “Miyazaki does cross over [with adults and children], but to an American, that's still arthouse. The audience going "Woah!" with Cody Rhodes is not watching Spirited Away. There's a broadness [that] animation needs to be cool.”
Next, he made a comparison to nu metal, “Like nu metal. When nu metal was the coolest thing, the hits are what made it. They took nu metal but distilled it into a poppy frame so everyday people were like, ‘I'm into this.’ Korn's ‘Freak on a Leash’ becomes a Trojan horse for normal people to get into Deftones and Tool.”
“American animation doesn't have that,” he said. “You have people stuck in Hanna-Barberaland. It's cool to me, but it's not cool to the NFL player pretending to be Goku. They're not going ‘Yabba Dabba-doo!’ It's not f***ing happening. That's my influence. I'm making American animation f***ing cool. That's what I'm doing.”
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Additionally, he says his aim is to make something new altogether rather than chase anime, “I grew up on action-heavy Saturday cartoons. American Saturday morning cartoons were f***ing sick. I didn't even live in America and I watched them! They made me want to be here. But they were boxed in by broadcast standards, and I wondered what these stories would become if they weren't held back.”
“That's the space I'm building,” he declared. “Carry forward the language of the era and elevate it for an audience grown up but still craves that style and energy. I'm not chasing the grammar of anime. I'm building something new rooted in American action storytelling. This genre needs a name, because it's not anime. It's something that lives between Saturday morning cartoons, prestige television, and R-rated cinema.”
What do you make of Shankar’s comments?
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If we lived in a perfect world, Adi Shankar would be able to create a story or universe in animation that is untethered and doesn't rely on existing properties. I get a sort of 'whiplash' when I see clips of his Castlevania animation adaptation especially with reference to Juste Belmont as many gamers helped him defeat Dracula in Harmony of Dissonance for the GBA and party of the pack of releases from Konami. Definitely worth checking out the Castlevania Advance Collection. I had a similar experience with the Devil May Cry animation adaptation from Shankar.
One sentiment that has intrigued me is that people that haven't played the Koji Igarashi Castlevania games or the mainline Devil May Cry series of games (what even was DmC?), is that they find the shows entertaining and fun. This speaks to me that Hollywood and the TV industry still practices 'skin suiting' existing properties to tell the stories the writers and directors want to tell rather than fund original projects possibly due to being risk averse or simply wanting to destroy beloved properties.
All in all, whenever I see such stuff going on, it makes me appreciate the source material that much more.
Oh, no. Poor Duke. He hasn't had a good game since the PS1 days and now he'll get this clown to ruin his legacy.