With Mission: Impossible and Top Gun under its control, it’s no wonder the newly-formed Paramount Skydance wants to add the bestselling video game franchise Call of Duty. According to Puck, the new leadership under David Ellison is in talks to acquire the game’s rights from Activision, with the negotiations seen as a high “priority” for the studio.
Call of Duty is a military first-person shooter franchise that began in 2003 and has sold millions, leading to multiple sequels and spinoffs. They began in WWII setting but have advanced significantly, with many of the games influenced significantly by blockbuster action movies, making them particularly good for adaptation. Slap Peter Berg or Michael Bay or Joseph Kosinski behind a Call of Duty and let the explosions rip!
Releasing this November is the latest game, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, which will star some pretty big names including Milo Ventimiglia, Michael Rooker, Y’lan Noel, Frankie Adams, and Kiernan Shipka.
That said, there have been many attempts to get a movie off the ground with no success. But Paramount Skydance, which is also taking over distribution of the Street Fighter movie, is eager to get its hands on major video game properties. And it has the money to make Call of Duty huge, possibly rivaling Minecraft. We’ll see.
