Activision Blizzard Studios Planning CoD Movies & More
Skylanders, then CoD, then...?
Following that Warcraft movie trailer, Activision Blizzard announced over the weekend that they've launched a new arm dedicated to making movies and TV out their games. The first celluloid fruit of Activision Blizzard Studios will be a TV cartoon adaptation of the Spyro spin-off series Skylanders, and they're awfully keen on making Call of Duty talkies too. Oh, if Pip were in today she'd know how to make this funny. Me, I'll just get a bit carried away hoping they make movies based around Cod Blops 3's bee-shooting cyberarm and Jeff Goldblum's escapades as a phoney wizard in its Zombies mode.
Activision Blizzard Studios is co-headed by former Disney executive Nick van Dyk and a mysterious, yet-unrevealed "senior creative executive".
Adapting Call of Duty is a "near-term initiative" for Activision Blizzard Studios, the announcement says. They dream of a "robust cinematic universe" with "a series of Call of Duty feature films as well as the possibility of television adaptations." Hey, you lot, yeah, you in the suits - if you're making these, at least do something fun and have them jump from era to era as an anthology series sort of thing.
"Activision Blizzard is home to some of the most successful entertainment franchises in history, across any medium," Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said in the announcement. "With the launch of Activision Blizzard Studios, our engaged fans can now watch the games they love come to life across film and television."
He added, "We intend to approach film and television development with the same unwavering commitment to excellence we are known for in game development."
What Kotick didn't mention, but I can reveal as an RPS Insider Knowledge Exclusive, is that if you pre-order your CoD movie ticket, you'll get a whole extra action sequence set in Nuketown. On top of that, see it at an Odeon cinema and your heroes will have unique golden gun skins. Catch it at Cineworld for a flashback sequence with Soap MacTavish visiting his dying ma in hospital, or Vue have an alternate version of that scene replacing the octogenarian with Cara Delevingne.