Seems like everyone wants on the cinematic universe train, even if they aren’t actually cinema. Activision Blizzard Studios, which somehow doesn’t quite sound real, are forging ahead with the idea that they can adapt their popular Call Of Duty video game series into not just a franchise, but a universe.
Co-President, Stacey Sher, said: “We have plotted out many years…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”.
Co-President, Nick van Dyk, added: “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”.
Call Of Duty is hardly the most story-driven series of games to ever hit the market, so it’s hard to envision a single film adaptation of a game that is basically shooting and killing being successful, let alone a franchise, let alone a whole universe of interconnected films.
It’s easy to say ‘hey we want to follow the MCU model’, but the key is to actually have a set of characters and stories that can intermingle with one another and grow over time. Considering Call Of Duty has no lead protagonist, this seems like an uphill battle.
A better, more realistic aim for a potential Call Of Duty series would be something akin to the Resident Evil franchise; hire a young, talented director full of ideas and proceed to make trashy popcorn films with a little more going on beneath the surface than most give it credit for. Aiming to mimic the MCU will likely only end up in disappointment.
#Peace.Love.CallOfDuty
