Activision’s Call of Duty movie has been put on hold by the company, according to Stefano Sollima, the movie’s director. Speaking to badtaste.it about a separate project, Sollima was asked if there were any updates on the status of the movie which was talked about years ago. According to a translation of his comments, Sollima said the idea of expanding the Call of Duty universe cinematically is no longer an “industrial priority.”
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Sollima’s conversation with Italian movie site badtaste.it was recorded in a podcast and through video with his answer singled out in a separate article as well. Google’s translation of the director’s comments and a separate DeepL translation say that Sollima wrote the film’s script with Scott Silver, a writer who’s also known for his work on Joker. While the screenplay was written, “the idea of cinematically expanding the universe, the world of Call of Duty is no longer (at the moment) an industrial priority of the group, of Activision.” Sollima said the movie is now in the “now we see” limbo.
Talks of Activision’s new Call of Duty movie have been quiet recently, so if Sollima’s comments indeed mean that the movie’s been put on hold by Activision, it wouldn’t be too surprising of a development. Sollima has been attached to the movie for a while now but has not been able to share many details on the project.
Some of his comments in the past have gave some indication of where he’d like to take the film though. He spoke to SlashFilm back in 2018 and said he wanted to make a film that didn’t copy what was done in the video games, one that would tell the story of a solider and not just war.
“I feel that a movie must be completely different as an experience from any video games,” Sollima said. “So meaning that in order to make a good movie based on a video game, you have to betray the structure. You must ignore the idea that they did a video game. You need to create something that is completely new and a great movie.”
Sollima has previously expressed interest in certain actors he’d like to see involved with the film, namely Chris Pine and Tom Hardy.
