Activision announced a film deal is sign with Paramount to produce a film based on the Call Of Duty series.
This deal “aims to bring the iconic Call of Duty universe to life on the big screen, delivering an unforgettable cinematic event for fans worldwide.”
With a 16-year-long annual release streak and over 500 million copies sold globally, the Call Of Duty is a big franchise, and a film adaptation based on the bombastic first-person shooter known for its extravagant, cinematic set-pieces is an inevitable one.
But the news beyond the press release is much more interesting.
According to a report by Puck (paywalled), the deal for Paramount to produce the Call Of Duty film is the result of Activision turning down a pitch for one by Steven Spielberg.
This “Spielberg Deal”, which Puck refers to the pitch from the renown Hollywood director also includes “top-of-market economics, final cut, and full control over production and marketing,” essentially full control over the project, something that Activision wouldn’t willing to give so they signed with Paramount instead.
Steven Spielberg is said to be a fan of the Call Of Duty series, but real gamers know Spielberg knows game. Like, literally. If you trace back the origins of Call Of Duty, the first domino to fall would feature the director’s name.
In 1995, Spielberg established DreamWorks Interactive, a subdivision of DreamWorks Pictures which he co-founded, as a videogame producing arm. Off the heels of directing the WWII film Saving Private Ryan, Spielberg pitched the idea of Medal Of Honor, a passion project of his, which kicked off the boom of WWII shooters after its release in 1999.
Several team members of the Medal Of Honor series, led by Jason West and Vincent Zampella, left the company to establish a new franchise that internally was referred as “Medal Of Honor Killer“: Call Of Duty. Unlike most games being dubbed the “killer” of any other games, Call Of Duty did just that. EA is now banking on the Battlefield series, with the release of Battlefield 6 later this October, to compete in the military shooter space.
Should the report holds water, this meant Activision denied a full-circle of sorts to have happened. The world is denied of seeing the director of Saving Private Ryan, who helped kicked off the juggernaut video game series of military shooters, to direct a film adaptation of it.
Still, the Call Of Duty film to be produced by Paramount has some potential. As long as it’s not a faithful adaptation of Call Of Duty Ghosts, that is. They should have Ghost, the character be part of it, though.