Almost a decade ago, Activision was looking like it would be moving forward with a Call of Duty movie. But it wasn't too much longer before that project was put on hold, and years later, here we are with no film based on the long-running military shooter franchise. Now, after rejecting a pitch from legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg, Activision will look to make a film that "feels really real and infuses that with epic scope" off the backs of Yellowstone co-creator Taylor Sheridan and Battleship director Pete Berg in time for June 30, 2028.
That's the latest update on the film after Activision boss and a producer for the film, Rob Kostich, took the CinemaCon stage during a presentation yesterday. Via Eurogamer, Kostich claimed, "I told everyone we were only going to make a movie if it's right. In David Ellison, we found that partnership...We want to make sure that the authenticity of it is captured on a human level so that it feels really real and infuses that with epic scope."
The film was confirmed to be in the works last year, and a little more than a month later, we learned that Sheridan and Berg would be taking charge of the film, with Sheridan in the writer's chair and Berg in the director's. Now, we know when Activision and Paramount are aiming to have the film out in theatres by, but there are still, of course, plenty of questions to be answered.
Chief of them simply being what will this film even be about? Call of Duty may wear authenticity and 'realism' as part of its military shooter drag, but there's very little that's 'authentic' about what is. At its core, it's an arcade shooter with 'realistic-looking' weapons that in its heyday was able to generate C to B-tier action film plots that were definitely meaningful to a generation of players who were all teenagers at a time, but to pretend its stories were deeper than a few inches is naivety.
Of course, it'll still probably make boatloads of money. The Super Mario Bros Movie and now the Super Mario Galaxy Movie are both proof that you don't need to make film adaptations of video games any good to make millions at the box office. Over a billion in the case of the first film, that is, and it wouldn't be surprising if the second film is able to catch up.
If all this film serves up is a B-tier action flick, then it'll probably be exceeding expectations in both quality and box office results. Though it will have to rely on a slightly older crowd making it out to the theatres, since it will likely not be able to bank on kids being able to convince their parents to take them to see it.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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