Paramount, the Hollywood studio just lately acquired by the software program billionaire Ellison household, will make a film based mostly on the wildly in style “Call of Duty” video video games.
Scion David Ellison, son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, assumed management of Paramount final month and is overseeing a serious effort to revitalize the storied however ailing studio behind “Top Gun” and “The Godfather.”
First-person-shooter sequence “Call of Duty” is likely one of the world’s best-selling video games franchises, having bought 500 million copies. It is performed month-to-month by greater than 100 million folks.
“As a lifelong fan of ‘Call of Duty’ this is truly a dream come true,” stated David Ellison, in an announcement.
The “Call of Duty” video games are made by Activision-Blizzard, which was itself bought by Microsoft in 2023 for $69 billion, within the sector’s largest takeover.
There have been greater than 30 “Call of Duty” sport titles total, because it debuted in 2003.
The most up-to-date main installment — 2024’s “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6” — was set within the Nineties, with a safety crew on a mission to focus on a U.S. senator and achieve entry to a top-secret website in Washington.
Under the cope with Activision, Paramount will “develop, produce, and distribute a live-action feature film based on ‘Call of Duty,'” the corporate launch stated.
No valuation was offered for the deal, nor particulars of the deliberate film.
Trade newspaper Variety reported that the partnership may develop to additional “Call of Duty” movies and tv exhibits, citing nameless sources. Paramount didn’t reply to AFP request for remark.
“From the first Allied campaigns in the original ‘Call of Duty,’ through ‘Modern Warfare’ and ‘Black Ops,’ I’ve spent countless hours playing this franchise that I absolutely love,” stated Ellison.
“Being entrusted by Activision and players worldwide to bring this extraordinary storytelling universe to the big screen is both an honor and a responsibility that we don’t take lightly.”
Paramount is already the house of a well-liked video-game adaptation — the “Sonic the Hedgehog” animated films.
Movie studios for a very long time struggled to transform profitable video games into one thing the viewing public would watch.
But current triumphs like “The Super Mario Bros Movie,” which netted over $1.3 billion globally, and the practically $1 billion take for “A Minecraft Movie” point out they could have cracked the formulation.
© 2025 AFP