Paramount Skydance Corp. and Microsoft’s Activision have formally teamed together to make a live-action movie based on the popular Call of Duty video game series. This big deal, which was disclosed in a statement on Tuesday, is another big step in Paramount’s new content strategy since David Ellison bought the studio.
David Ellison, the Chairman and CEO of Paramount, said he was excited about the movie. He said, “We’re approaching this film with the same disciplined, uncompromising commitment to excellence that guided our work on Top Gun: Maverick.” He also said that he wants to make sure the movie meets the high standards that fans and the franchise anticipate. He said that he is a lifelong fan who has spent “countless hours” playing the game.
Since Ellison took over Paramount in August, he has made a number of important deals, and this one is the most recent. The corporation inked a huge $7.7 billion, seven-year deal last month to stream Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fights on its Paramount+ program. It also worked with the Duffer brothers, who made Netflix’s Stranger Things, to make new movies and TV shows.
Ellison has made it plain that making more movies and TV shows is very important to him. At a recent media gathering in Los Angeles, he said that he wanted to distribute about 20 movies in theaters every year. He has put Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein in charge of the studio to make this happen. He has also made it a priority to make a third movie in the Top Gun series and further movies in the Star Trek world.
This isn’t the first time that someone has tried to make a movie out of Call of Duty. In 2015, while Activision was still a separate company, it started a division just for making movies and TV shows based on its successful games. But a movie based on the franchise never happened. Fans may now trust that this live-action movie will make it to the big screen because to Ellison’s bold new plan.