It seems that the all-conquering Call of Duty franchise may have bitten off a little more than it could chew, as a movie based on the series is on a bit of a hiatus while the parties involved decide where they’re going with it.
Of course, Call of Duty is a franchise that needs no introduction. In the traditional gaming sphere, it’s become the very last word in FPS titles. The series that all shooters will inevitably be compared to and have to somehow compete against. In the mobile gaming arena, it’s taken on titans like Pokémon GO and Mario Kart Tour and done just fine for itself, thank you very much.
Over the years, we’ve seen some big stars appearing in Call of Duty commercials. When you’ve got the clout to bring in Robert Downey Jr. and other top-tier celebrities, you know you’ve really hit the big time. In short, it's one of those franchises that’s much more than a series of video games: it’s a pop culture phenomenon.
As such, Activision has been keen to try and hawk the popular shooter’s name in as many ways as possible. Of course, there’s been talk of a movie, but it seems that the team’s ambitions may have been a little too big for now. Even for this series. According to an interview with BadTaste (via GameSpot), Activision has taken its focus off the movie project for now, as the team behind it plots out how to proceed.
Activision Blizzard Studios is the outfit behind the movie(s), and producer Stacey Sher has offered a little insight into the directions the work is going to take:
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.
In short, the finer details haven’t quite been hashed out yet, scripts have been written and the wheels are very much in motion. It’s going to take some time, though, and that makes perfect sense: big video game adaptations -- however loosely they’re based on the source material -- are a heck of an undertaking.
GameSpot goes on to report that Activision Blizzard Studio’s Nick van Dyk has super high hopes for the movie project: "It's going to have the same sort of high-adrenaline, high-energy aesthetic as the game, but it's not a literal adaptation," he said. "It's a much more broad and inclusive, global in scope ... a big, tentpole, Marvel-esque movie."
Well, dang. Now that’s something you’ve got to be careful to get just right. Take all the time you need, Activision.