The 2005 Doom movie was a big deal. The game series was a smash hit with a significant fan base and the project had major film franchise potential.
The story is set in a research facility on Mars. When the Union Aerospace Corporation facility is attacked, a squad of Marines including Dwayne Johnson as Sarge and Karl Urban as John Grimm is sent on a code red mission there to protect and retrieve UAC property and, “if necessary, search and destroy.” While there, they find John’s sister, Dr. Sam Grimm played by Rosamund Pike, who helps the team retrieve the data.
The film arrived in theaters in October of 2005 and was a massive disappointment all around. Doom received a lashing from critics, didn’t meet the expectations of diehard fans of the game and also failed to earn back its production budget. Doom reportedly came with a $60 million price tag and made just $58 million at the worldwide box office.
With Wheel of Time kicking off its run on Amazon this Friday, Pike took the time to join us for an episode of Collider Ladies Night. Pike’s got a slew of highs in her career, and we covered many of them, but we also like to take a moment to revisit the bumps in the road and highlight lessons learned from them. In the case of Doom, Pike learned a pretty valuable one that’s coming in handy on Wheel of Time.
Back in 2005, Pike already had a handful of credits to her name including Die Another Day, but a movie like Doom could be a very exciting opportunity for a rising star in the process of launching a very promising career. During our conversation, I asked Pike when her expectations for the film started to shift. Here’s what she said:
“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.”
Projects that don’t pan out as hoped are inevitable in a prolific career, but they’re not without value. As we emphasize often on Collider Ladies Night, a challenging experience could spark growth that’ll influence a future project for the better, and that’s exactly what happened for Pike on Wheel of Time. Here’s how she put it:
“I fully embraced the fan culture of this book series. I’ve spent hours finding out what they love and hearing what they have to say and seeing what they discuss on the chat rooms and all of that. And I just wish I had known to do that for Doom. So it’s a source of kind of regret for me that -- I just didn’t know enough about the business to be perfectly honest.”
Eager to hear more from Pike on Wheel of Time and her experience in the film and television industry thus far? Hang tight! We’ll have Pike’s full Collider Ladies Night interview for you closer to Wheel of Time’s November 19th debut.