Activision
I had to do a double-take when I saw that Activision Studios might have finally found a director for the CALL OF DUTY movie they’ve been developing for a decade or more. You would think that a movie based on one of the most cinematic video games would be an easy sell, but I guess not.
In fact, Stefano Sollima, director of the upcoming Sicario 2: Soldado, is now in talks to direct the video game movie, although we’re still waiting for confirmation from Activision.
Activision Blizzard Studios Presidents Stacey Sher and Nick van Dyk will produce along with chief executive, although they still need to find a writer… and a distributor as Activision has been developing this planned film on their own. Without a writer, it’s hard to think that they might be ready to go into production any time soon. They might not even have an idea for what to do in a Call of Duty movie because they have a lot of options from the games.
Sher and van Dyk have big plans, though, hoping to turn the Call of Duty games into a cinematic universe, which definitely seems possible considering the number and variety of the different games. They also said they won’t bring over existing plots from the games but will draw from them for a movie.
Sher is a veteran producer who worked on Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight and a variety of other films.
Activision Blizzard’s last production was 2016’s Warcraft, produced along with Legendary Pictures and released by Universal. It grossed only $47.4 million in North America but made another $386 million overseas, mainly helped by a huge performance in China. (The movie reportedly cost $160 million.)
The Italian filmmaker first came to fame as director of the popular Sky Atlantic crime series Gomorra, itself based on the acclaimed foreign language film. The Sicario 2 producers saw the show and tapped him to take over from Denis Villeneuve when he moved on to direct Blade Runner 2049. That sequel, starring Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin, will open on June 29.
Sollima is repped by CAA and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.
The story was first reported by Variety.
Edward Douglas | East Coast Editor
