Call of Duty: The Movie Is Planned

c_o_d

Not only are Activision negotiating to translate their Guitar Hero game into a reality TV series and/or a concert tour (Heropalooza?), The Hollywood Reporter are telling us that the video game company have set up deals for a World of Warcraft picture, as we already knew, and a Call of Duty movie, which is new news to me.

The CEO of Activision Blizzard refused to comment to the Hollywood Reporter on either Warcraft or Call of Duty but as well we know the official line is no more dependably credible than the unofficial one. My first question about this film would be one of tone, however. Can a serious war film retain credibility when tied to a videogame license? Or, perhaps more to the point, will a studio believe the supposed audience for a videogame adaptation would stand the sort of integrity and moral sensitivity that prevents war movies being hollow, exploitative dross?

The game series seeks to represent American, Soviet and British perspectives, a blend which is unusual in typical war pictures and could make for an interesting underlying premise to the adaptation. The occasional level of the game that requires the player character to ‘go it alone’ might make for good gameplay but would have to be handled sensibly in the film to avoid evoking infuriating ‘John Wayne’ heroics.

If Inglourious Basterds is a smash, which I sincereley hope it will be, we might see Call of Duty getting an easy greenlight. If, on the other hand, Basterds bombs there’s a fair chance of all world war related treatments, scripts and licenses getting swept off the table and into the circular file. This is hardly an amazing feat of perspicacity, I know. I’m really just parrotting the accepted wisdom on studio development cycles but while Call of Duty is in early development like this, it seems the appropriate context to quote.

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  • call of duty is the best game ever. I hope they make a good movie.
  • ARABinTHEmist
    i agree with naruto and i think that if cod was made into a movie it would have to be based of cod4 mw and mw2 and Matt Damon would have to play "Soap". Any ideas who would play Gen. Shepard, any of the Russian main characters, or any other characters? And what happened to the halo movie because those games could be awsome movies

    My gamertag is ARABinTHEmist send me friend request on xbox live!
  • naruto
    actually the call of duty movie would have to be based of modern warfare and modern warfare 2 I mean why would they make another WWII movie i mean thats what saving private ryan was for
  • Miller
    I think cod modern warfare 1 & 2 is better in the movie
  • SKILLZSCOPE
    woooohooooo cod movie
  • We need the days of real men like John Wayne to come back. Like it or not, there are real heroes in war who do extraordinary things. War is not just an opportunity to wet our kerchiefs and quote Emerson and condemn capitalistic greed. The Call of Duty series (I've played every single one) if anything doubly glorifies both heroism in war but also its horrors - it portrays its horrors with a realism that constantly reminds you that war is simply only a sometimes horrible means to end war itself. Your comment about John Wayne almost made me hurl, it only confirms the sad direction film has gone in since his days. It's like we're afraid to have action heroes who are heroes just to be heroes - everyone has to apologize for their past, or be some kind of druggy lunatic, or fight against people who are killing plants or stealing water to hurt the Earth-lovers. It's time we found some real men again, and some roles for real men. There are so many people that love to comment about war that don't know anything about it, and would probably never fight in a war themselves for any reason at all.
  • No, you're right. I'd never fight in any war for any reason at all. Not because I'm not a real man (trust me, I've got a dictionary here) but because I'm a pacifist. I wish we all were.
  • ARABinTHEmist
    i would fight in a war ONLY if the U.S.A was attacked and an invasion was targeted for the U.S but i definitly wont fight if its some kind of stupid police action like veitnam, or like wats happening now in Iraq.

    I SAY WE WITHDRAW ALL TROOPS AND DROP AN H-BOMB ON ALL THOSE DAMN TOWELHEAD SANDNIGERS OVER THERE
  • If everyone was a pacifist, that would suggest everyone believed there was nothing worth fighting for. It would suggest that nothing will ever happen in the future of human history that absolutely, definitely, requires a violent response in return in order to preserve peace. I find it hard to believe that any human, or red-blooded male, would swear that there is nothing they can ever experience that would absolutely demand a just, swift, effective, response. While it is easy from our anthill perspective to condemn war, it really is merely interpersonal human conflict on a grand scale instead of a micro one. The day that human beings get along and never have conflict, will be the day we can disband militarism, police units, divorce courts, and traffic signals. What I find strangely quirky about pacifism, is that it seems to only apply to a universe that is totally unlike the one we inhabit, thus rendering it a philosophy of pipe dreams. While it is an admirable perspective, it only is effective if no on will ever take advantage of it as a perspective - which, given the history of the world, is an impossibility. What's interesting is that we are discussing paradigms in national thought as well as in the arts that reflect different generations. There was nothing more black and white or less confusing about World War 2 as it happened in actual history than what we've gone through with the Middle East - yet look at the difference in our generations responses, and how they are reflected in art. While the John Wayne era had its share of corniness and probable mistakes in representation, at least it still remembered the concept of honor and was not afraid to give tribute to it. Oftentimes our modern liberal voices represent such movies as being overly jingoistic and crass towards the enemy - but that is simply an exaggeration and is not in keeping with the mindset of people who actually lived through those times and fought in Europe or the South Pacific. Nowadays, most people feel they can't even talk about war or a just violent response without apologizing or waxing about some vague concept of environmental sin or corporate greed. Given the history of our democracy, the history of human culture, it is very concerning to see how weak our understanding of conflict and oftentimes necessary responses are.
  • "The Call of Duty series (I've played every single one) if anything doubly glorifies both heroism in war but also its horrors - it portrays its horrors with a realism that constantly reminds you that war is simply only a sometimes horrible means to end war itself."

    You have to be shitting me right?
  • Have you actually read all the quotes they put in the Call of Duty games when you die, and in between levels? Put together they form an incredibly educated and experienced perspective on war. Most of the quotes are from people who have had to fight in it, or who have experienced it. Sure, they are over the top representations and don't even come close to showing the real horrors of war, but they are not the insensitive brain-bashing this article seems to suggest.
  • Ya sounds like a bad idea. Video game movies are bad enough but a world war 2 video game movie just sounds laughable.
  • I'll just rehash what others have said; the Call of Duty games (and Medal of Honour games before them) were basically taking stories and scenes from popular WW2 movies and adapting them to the game. It's quite baffling that somebody would get the idea to make a movie out of this.
  • A movie based on a game series that's based on movies that are based on a historical event?

    Give me a fucking break.
  • And don't forget the Game which will be based on the movie which was based on a game series that was based on movies that are based on a historical event
  • Fir3Wolf
    What would make this game different from any other WWII movie out there besides it being based off a game. I really like war films and so will probably see it, but I don't expect it to wow me in anyway lol.
  • Activision will whore any property they have for some cash so oddly this doesn't surprise me.
  • Do not want.

    what the fuck im just baffled
  • This idea is just as moronically idiotic as the GTA movie fans plead for.
  • gah
    we got a GTA movie. it was called Crank 2.
  • How are they still not turning halo into a movie? lost planet, bioshock, cod? but not halo?
  • lol
  • Goobity
    "Activision... negotiating to translate their Guitar Hero game into a reality TV series and/or a concert tour"

    And how will this be different than the atrocity that was the Rock Band reality show with Alice Cooper and Sebastian Bach? I'm guessing...it won't.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUJCSjMbVhE
  • Wow what a terrible idea.

    I'm thinking though that it might probably be based on COD Modern Warfare and it's sequel. Still a bad idea though.
  • Aaron
    I remember a time when a movie would be released and you'd expect a game to follow right behind it. When did that table turn?
  • Steve
    Actually, I'd find a Left 4 Dead film totally awesome.

    Anyways, I'm not sure how I feel about another WWII movie. I mean, Saving Private Ryan is just so good, I don't know how I feel about any other WWII movie.
  • Call of Duty = Saving Private Ryan
  • Mikey
    Actually, I would have to say...

    Medal of Honor: Frontline = Saving Private Ryan literally
    and
    Call of Duty = Thin Red Line-ish
  • That would be so fucking bizarre. Cause the Call of Duty games were basically video games based on the World War 2 themes of Saving Private Ryan and the Band of Brothers miniseries. What would be the point of making a Call of Duty film?

    It'd be like making a Left 4 Dead zombie film. Completely redundant.
  • mbellerbrock
    Meta-WWII film!.... blech... I was thinking the same thing Delta. This is a dumb idea.

    After reading today about an American Gladiator movie I've really lost respect for some of the people working in Hollywood.
  • Xono
    I was about to post the same thing, the team that made Medal of Honor Allied Assault went on to become Infinity Ward the makers of Call of Duty and even the makers of Saving Private Ryan new about MOH:AA Steven Spielberg even pointed it out to Vin Diesel a fellow gamer.

    Bizarre that they would make any movie maybe it Modern Warfare could fly as an action flick but there is no way they will ever pull it off

    Oh and this will never get made just more silly video game to movie ideas that will never ever happen, remember Halo, Bioshock , Mass Effect ,Gears of War etc none of these will ever go anywhere.
  • Actually I always thought it was Medal of Honor that was based off of those movies and series. After all it was down with the help of Dreamworks and Spielberg had his hand in them.
  • greatest shooter out right now!

    can't see it as a movie though. hugh jackman anyone? lol
  • ive played my fair share of call of duty, and i have to say i really disagree with it being turned into a movie, come up with an original idea hollywood and stop adapting everything thats popular in other mediums.
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