According to one of the writers, the Call of Duty movie is currently on hold at Activision. Call of Duty is one of the most popular video game franchises today. First published by Activision in 2003, the first-person shooter series has released a total of 16 games since. In fact, Call of Duty games took seven spots out of the top ten best-selling games of the last decade.
Activision Blizzard Studios first announced in November 2015 that they would develop a cinematic universe based on the Call of Duty game franchise. The film was initially slated to be released in 2019. In 2018, it was announced that Stefano Sollima, director of Sicario: Day of the Soldado, was chosen to direct the movie. Sollima stated during an interview with Screen Rant that it would be a "real movie." Later in 2018, Black Panther writer, Joe Robert Cole was hired by Activision to write the sequel. Since then, however, there has been a lack of significant updates regarding the film, which missed the 2019 release window.
During a recent interview with Italian movie website Badtaste, director and writer Stefano Sollima stated that the Call of Duty movie is currently on hold. While Sollima wrote a script with Scott Silver (Joker), the Call of Duty movie is no longer a priority for Activision. Sollima also followed by stating that the project is "in limbo."
It's been over four years since the movie was first announced by Activision Blizzard Studios. Despite the occasional news updates, the project has been pushed back and missed multiple projected release dates. At one point, Stacey Sher, a co-president of the studio, said that although the movie draws on themes from the different Call of Duty entries, it would set itself apart from the games as well. At another point, Sollima even expressed an interest in working with Tom Hardy and Chris Pine on the project.
After all the delays and roadblocks, a Call of Duty movie does not seem likely anytime soon. Since the studio first announced its desire to create a cinematic universe, many other studios have tried to do something similar, all at varying levels of success. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is obviously the most popular (and successful) one, but others such as Legendary's MonsterVerse and Universal's Dark Universe haven't been quite as profitable.
While some CoD fans may be upset, perhaps this is a blessing in disguise. Besides a small number of properties (all can be counted on one hand), the vast majority of video game movie adaptations have been duds. While the future of the Call of Duty cinematic universe seems unlikely at this point, fans still have plenty of video game entries to look forward to.
Source: Badtaste