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Is Activision Planning a Call of Duty Movie Series?

By James DeRuvo (doddleNEWS)

With Microsoft, Steven Spielberg, and Ridley Scott planning a live-action Halo series and a feature film, respectively, and with Marvel Studios pretty much running the table in Hollywood with their Cinematic Universe, it looks like video game companies are looking at their hot titles and seeing box office gold in them thar hills. News has already broke that Ubisoft is trying to launch a Splinter Cell series, and now Activision is looking hard at creating a whole tent pole around Call of Duty.

 

It’s certainly not the first time we’ve seen movies based on video games… we’ve seen Final Fantasy (2001) – although that was a life-like CGI-created animated film, Dungeons & Dragons (okay, that’s an RPG), and then there’s the aforementioned Halo. Legendary’s World of Warcraft, from Moon director Duncan Jones, is deep into post-production. There’s also Mortal Kombat, which is getting new life thanks to a hyper violent, yet cool web series on Machinima. And Halo Forward Unto Dawn was a 5-part live action web series that enjoyed over 25 million views and received a host of Streamy Awards in 2013, as well as a nomination for Outstanding Main Title Design in the Emmy’s.

But Call of Duty would be a war film. A series of war films. And there’s a rich back story, incredible characters, and a ton of action. And what was really interesting is that with the latest CoD, Kevin Spacey joins in with the cut scenes for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. That gave the series so serious gravitas and a step towards a more cinematic feel.

But, the cool part is that Call of Duty is so vast, that they could in essence start anywhere. They can go back to WWII, or move all the way up to modern times, go with the Ghost series, and, of course, space battles! And they could divide them up into TV shows and Movies.

But in today’s war weary society, would it work? Probably. Then again, we have already seen films like Edge of Tomorrow fail to live up to expectations for a Tom Cruise film, prompting Warner Brothers to try and disguise it by changing the title to “Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow.” Pity because it was critically acclaimed and wasn’t that bad of a popcorn movie.

But it may just be that audiences are tired of the dystopian vibe that usually comes with a war film, unless it’s masked by fantasy like a Star Wars or Hobbit like series. Those are far away. They don’t hit home. Call of Duty would really hit too close to home. Titanfall may be more attractive, IMHO.

But there’s also the basic interactive component to the game, where gamers can go where they want to coordinate their entertainment. While films present the story that the filmmakers want you to see. That lends itself easier to comic book films because they’re cut from a similar cloth. But there’s no denying if you have an audience, why not try to bring them along into the movie theater.

It just seems kinda wierd that we’ve gone full circle … a game used to be based on a movie (especially when they cost just as much and usually much way more), now the movies are based on the games.

Hat Tip – Machinima

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