Activision has put the planned film adaptation of their Call of Duty franchise on indefinite hold.
Sicario: Day of the Soldado director Stefano Sollima was slated to helm the film which was first announced in 2015 and which he became attached to two years ago with the plan to go into production early last year. That never happened, but it was thought the film had simply been delayed.
Now, speaking with Bad Taste , Solima says it goes beyond a simple case of the project stalling in development and explains how he planned to approach the material:
“Well, the Call of Duty film has remained a bit like this… We wrote the script with Scott Silver (“Joker”), and let’s say that the idea of expanding the universe, the world of Call of Duty… is no longer (at the moment) an industrial priority of the group, of Activision… So, trivially, it has stood still, which happens quite frequently there in America.
I feel that a movie must be completely different as an experience from any video games. 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 goes on to say the film is now “in limbo” and it’s likely he will pursue different projects in the near future.