Platinum Dunes, the company run by Michael Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller, will produce.

No director is on board at this stage. A search for a writer will begin soon to develop a script for what is intended to be a starring vehicle for Cena.

The Nukem video games follow the muscular adventures of their titular protagonist, who initially was a mashup of action-hero tropes. The cigar-chomping figure has been fighting aliens in order to save planet Earth since 1991, when the first game was released.

The project was previously set up at Dimension Films, but after the rights lapsed Paramount picked them up from Gearbox Software, the company behind the game.

Platinum Dunes is one of the companies behind the Purge action franchise and has produced the Ninja Turtles movies for Paramount. It next has the John Krasinski-directed horror movie A Quiet Place, which is set to open April 6.

Cena has quietly made Paramount his de facto movie home, having appeared in the studio's Daddy's Home 2, which has grossed over $100 million domestically; he also is set to appear in Bumblebee, the studio's Transformers spinoff, which Bay produced.