'Call of Duty' Will Be Adapted for the Big Screen

Warcraft won’t be the only Activision Blizzard property coming to theaters. Today, in a call with investors, the company announced that it’s launching its very own television and film studio — meaning that it will have full control over developing its properties for the big and small screens alike (Warcraft was licensed to Legendary and Universal). While the first production from the studio will come in the form of a TV show based on the video game/collectible toy mashup Skylanders, the second will be Activision Blizzard’s first foray into filmmaking: a series of films based on the infinitely popular Call of Duty franchise, which has grossed over $11 billion USD to date. Said Nick van Dyk, a former senior executive at Disney who will serve as the co-president of the new studio:

Activision Blizzard Studios has the unique advantage of starting with a library of world-class intellectual property that includes some of the largest franchises which have not yet been developed in film and television. Our library spans more than 30 years of global entertainment culture and, in the last 12 months alone, fans of Activision Blizzard properties have played and watched our games online for more than 13 billion hours.

Though an exact timeline for a Call of Duty film is currently unknown, the latest entry in the video game series — Call of Duty: Black Ops III — hit shelves today.