With how popular Call of Duty is among children, you'd think Activision would want to capitalize on that success with some films. If Michael Bay can repeat the same made up military nonsense for all of his movies, why not take the gaming equivalent and blow it up on the big screen? It looks like our nightmares are about to become real, as Activision Blizzard Studios has announced that they have plans to expand the franchise beyond gaming.
Speaking with The Guardian, the co-presidents of Activsion Blizzard (Stacey Sher and Nick van Dyk) detailed that they would like to start their plan with a single film to gauge success. If that movie proves profitable, then follow-ups can be made. They "have plotted out many years" of Call of Duty films; I feel sick even typing this.
As Sher notes, "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."
Van Dyk adds, "It’s going to have the same sort of high-adrenaline, high-energy aesthetic as the game, but it’s not a literal adaptation. It’s a much more broad and inclusive, global in scope ... a big, tentpole Marvel-esque movie." As the article notes, Van Dyk was one of the key players in Disney's acquisition of Marvel and Star Wars and helped push plans for future development of those franchises forward, so he obviously knows what he is doing.
As with anything popular, there are inevitably copycats who will try to repeat it. Marvel found wild success with their "Cinematic Universe," so now most Hollywood studios are trying the same thing. More power to people who actually enjoy The Fast and the Furious, but I was never clamoring to have those films all linked together. I also don't care about Universal Monsters or anything DC Comics is doing.
I also don't know how Call of Duty can even work as a film. Sure, big budget spectacle is always a thing that is good for a laugh, but the reason interconnected universes work is because there is something to care about. People don't watch a Marvel film solely for the action (mostly because it sucks); they come to see the drama between Iron Man and Captain America and how it is impacting the characters they've grown to love. Call of Duty has none of that personal involvement.
If you're interested in reading more about this new Call of Duty film series, you can check out the interview on The Guardian. There is also talk of a TV series (like Marvel has with Netflix) and the overseas success of Warcraft's film adaptation.
Could the Call of Duty franchise be the next Marvel? [The Guardian]
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