Call Of Duty Movie Adds Joker Writer, Gets Put On Hold

The Call of Duty movie is seemingly no longer a priority for Activision, though that doesn’t mean it’s been scrapped altogether. Director Stefano Sollima (Sicario: Day of Soldado) said in a new interview with BadTaste that the action movie is on hold as the parties decide how to move forward.

Sollima pointed out that this move is nothing out of the ordinary, given Hollywood movies can take a very long time to come together. The Uncharted movie, for example, has been in various stages of production for more than a decade already and has cycled through 7 different directors.

Sollima also mentioned in the interview that he wrote the Call of Duty movie script alongside Scott Silver, who wrote the scripts for Joker and The Fighter, both of which earned Oscar nominations.

The interview was conducted in Italian, and GameSpot has confirmed the quotes.

There could be any number of reasons for why the Call of Duty movie is no longer a priority for Activision. We’ve contacted the publisher in an attempt to get more details.

The film will be produced under Activision’s movie label, Activision Blizzard Studios, which is a Beverley Hills-based outfit that is responsible for adapting the company’s game franchises for TV and film.

Activision Blizzard Studios was formed in 2015, following the release of the Warcraft movie. It’s headed up by producer Stacey Sher (Garden State, The Hateful Eight) and former Disney executive Nick van Dyk. Activision Blizzard Studios has not released any movies yet, but it partnered with Netflix for the Skylanders Academy TV show. Additionally, van Dyk’s LinkedIn page seems to confirm the rumors that a Diablo TV show is coming to Netflix. A new animated series based on Overwatch is also on the way, according to van Dyk’s page.

Sher and van Dyk said in an interview that movies based on Call of Duty sub-brands are currently in the works, while multiple scripts have already been written.

“We have plotted out many years,” Sher explained. “We put together this group of writers to talk about where we were going. There’ll be a film that feels more like Black Ops, the story behind the story. The Modern Warfare series looks at what it’s like to fight a war with the eyes of the world on you. And then maybe something that is more of a hybrid, where you are looking at private, covert operations, while a public operation is going on.”

“It’s going to have the same sort of high-adrenaline, high-energy aesthetic as the game, but it’s not a literal adaptation,” added van Dyk. “It’s a much more broad and inclusive, global in scope … a big, tentpole, Marvel-esque movie.”

What would you like to see from the Call of Duty movie? Let us know in the comments below!