USA Network has set the cast and director for the pilot Masters of Doom. The pilot will star Eduardo Franco (Booksmart), Patrick Gibson (The OA), John Karna (Valley of the Boom), Jane Ackermann (Neptune) and Siobhan Williams (Deadly Class). Peter Friedman (Succession) will recur as a guest star.
The pilot will be directed by Emmy(R) Award winner Rhys Thomas, best known for his work on Documentary Now! and Saturday Night Live.
Eduardo Franco (Booksmart) will star as John Romero, a brilliant young programmer and designer determined to become the video game industry’s first rock star.
Patrick Gibson will star as John Carmack, a self-taught genius whose unparalleled programming skill allows him to help create the first-person-shooter genre – and lay the groundwork for the rise of virtual reality.
John Karna will play Tom Hall, a tragically lovable young game designer who becomes the heart and soul of the two Johns’ groundbreaking company, iD Software.
Jane Ackermann will play Hannah Romero, a young wife and mother whose support for her husband, John Romero, is pushed to its breaking point by his unrelenting focus on games.
Siobhan Williams will play Stevie Case, a brash and charismatic young woman who becomes one of the first female professional gamers – and John Romero’s girlfriend.
Peter Friedman will recur as Al Vekovius, the 1987 Shreveport Businessman of the Year, whose Louisiana company, Softdisk, brings the two Johns together and sponsors their first forays as professional game designers.
Masters of Doom, based on award-winning journalist and author David Kushner’s landmark nonfiction book of the same name, is a story based on real events of two computer geniuses in an obscure corner of America who, along with a group of rebellious misfits, created one of the biggest franchise hits of the 90s, the video game DOOM. John Carmack and John Romero were best friends who became bitter rivals, as they created a video game empire and transformed pop culture forever.
From UCP, Masters of Doom will be written by WGA Award winner Tom Bissell, who will also serve as executive producer. Bissell is a writer on the “Gears of War,” “Battlefield,” and “Uncharted” video game franchises; author of nine books, including “Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter”; and co-author of the New York Times bestseller “The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made.” His short fiction has also been anthologized in multiple editions of the “Best American Short Stories” series.
