Masters of Doom movie headed to the small screen

Author David Kushner has confirmed that a film adaptation of his 2003 book Masters of Doom, which told the stories of Doom creators John Carmack and John Romero, is in the works.

Our sister site Eurogamer.net contacted Kushner following a report in Variety newspaper, and was told: "Yes, a Masters of Doom movie is in development." However, Kushner did not comment on whether or not he will have any involvement with the scriptwriting.

Masters of Doom tells the story of Carmack and Romero, and how they came to found id Software and create the Doom series. The movie version will be shown on US pay cable channel Showtime.

CSI executive producer Naren Shankar, who is developing the project, came up with the idea after he read a review of Kushner's book in an engineering publication.

"It's such a classic American rags-to-riches story. I really suck at the game, but the story of these two twentysomething guys is pretty incredible," he told Variety. "In the space of a few years, their idea and technology launched an entire industry based around these first-person shooter games."

A movie production of the game itself is also in development and recently had its release date delayed, while the next instalment in the Doom series could be in the form of an RPG for mobile phones, according to an update on John Carmack's blog.