Huge Video Game Series in Negotiations for Movie From Paramount

Paramount Pictures has reportedly entered negotiations to acquire the film rights to another popular video game series.

This comes after the studio found success in its partnership with SEGA through the development of the Sonic the Hedgehog live-action movies. Five years after the first installment’s theatrical release, it has now become a blockbuster franchise with a combined worldwide gross of over $1.2 billion.

What video game series is Paramount adapting into a movie?

According to Puck, Paramount Pictures is looking to obtain the film rights to Activision’s most popular and best-selling video game franchise, Call of Duty. Despite the challenge of adapting the game into a live-action movie, the outlet claimed that it’s currently a priority for the studio executives David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Josh Greenstein. At the moment, the project doesn’t have a creative team attached to it yet.

Back in 2015, Activision actually attempted to produce a Call of Duty cinematic universe by creating the production studio Activision Blizzard Studios. Tom Hardy and Chris Pine were the actors previously rumored to lead the project, with Sicario: Day of the Soldado director Stefano Sollima and Black Panther writer Joe Robert Cole attached. However, in 2020, Sollima confirmed that the project was put on hold.

Call of Duty is a first-person shooter military video game franchise that first launched in 2003. Since then, it has spawned more than 30 games, which include spin-offs and mobile game versions. Several of its storylines take place in a World War II setting, although there are also modern-day and futuristic games. It is currently one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time, with over 500 million copies sold globally.

(Source: Puck)