Rosamund Pike Talks “Doom” Failures
Rosamund Pike has been incredibly successful since first coming to the attention of mainstream audiences as a bond girl in Die Another Day. And while that remains the project she is most well-known for, a close second has to be the notorious video game flop, Doom.
Doom was released back in 2005 and featured an all-star cast that included Karl Urban and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (though he wasn’t quite yet the franchise launcher he is today), though that didn’t seem to matter much. The film tanked, with rote action set pieces, bad CGI, multiple production issues, and an underwhelming script being to blame. At the time, many thought the movie was a surefire hit that was start the video game adaptation boom, but, if anything, the legacy of Doom is a stain on video game to film adaptations.
In fact, Pike is still regularly asked about her involvement in the film. And recently, during an interview with Collider for here upcoming Amazon limited series, The Wheel of Time, the actress elaborated on her time with the franchise:
I feel partly to blame in that respect because I think I failed just through ignorance and innocence to understand, to fully get a picture of what Doom meant to fans at that point. I wasn’t a gamer. I didn’t understand. If I knew what I knew now, I would have dived right into all of that and got fully immersed in it like I do now. And I just didn’t understand. I feel embarrassed, really. I feel embarrassed that I was sort of ignorant of what it meant and I didn’t know how to go about finding out because the internet wasn’t the place it is now for the fans to speak up. I wouldn’t have known where to find them. I do now! In fact, I now have many friends who were massive fans of the game and I just wish I had known them then.
Reviews were dire with just an 18% positive reaction on Rotten Tomatoes and the franchise sat on ice until a direct-to-video reboot titled Doom: Annihilation released in 2019. However, that film didn’t ignite much interest on the property and there are no currently announced plans for any more cinematic adaptations.
