The ongoing rivalry between Call of Duty and Battlefield is escalating as both franchises target Hollywood for their next battleground. Activision is working with Paramount Pictures to produce a film around Call of Duty, with Peter Berg (Lone Survivor) and Taylor Sheridan (Sicario) set to direct and write the film, respectively. It was confirmed earlier this month that Call of Duty will hit theaters June 30, 2028, which suggests production could begin within the next year.
EA is also getting in on the movie action, working with action director Christopher McQuarrie on a Battlefield movie. The four-time Mission: Impossible director and Top Gun: Maverick co-writer will write, direct, and co-produce the Battlefield film with Michael B. Jordan, who could also star in the film if the stars align. The project is being shopped around to studios with the intention of a theatrical release and would likely become a priority project for McQuarrie.
The prospect of a Call of Duty and a Battlefield movie going up against each other, just as the video games have done, has sparked debate among fans. And the big question right now is, which film has the best odds of being good?
Some fans have pitted the various creatives involved with the movies against each other to try and figure that out. “I'm so perplexed why [Paramount Skydance CEO David] Ellison/Paramount didn't giftwrap Call of Duty for Christopher McQuarrie, who has been spearheading Mission: Impossible for ages and helped get Top Gun 2 past the finish line,” one fan said. McQuarrie is a pretty aggressive filmmaker with ample experience creating over-the-top set pieces using a healthy amount of practical effects. And anyone who's watched Tom Cruise do his thing in the Mission: Impossible films will know how fond he is of shooting someone hanging off of a moving aircraft at high altitudes without the help of green screen.
McQuarrie has routinely delivered crowd-pleasing action films with inventive set pieces and shown that he can do it with a high level of flair. This makes him a solid choice to adapt a video game series known for destruction and absurd spectacle, like ejecting from a jet to shoot down another aircraft with a rocket launcher. Not only that, but the fact he’s paired with Michael B. Jordan fresh off of his Oscar win for Sinners makes for a killer duo. McQuarrie frequently works with Tom Cruise as well, but it’s hard to say if the Top Gun star would be interested in adapting a video game.
McQuarrie is also a big fan of high-stakes storytelling and using action to drive plot, something that has been proven time and time again with his Mission: Impossible movies. This would make him a natural fit for the kind of story you’d expect from a Battlefield project.
As for Call of Duty, Peter Berg has some solid films like Lone Survivor and Deepwater Horizon under his belt, but also a number of flops like 2012's Battleship and 2018's Mile 22. Last weekend, Berg came under fire for resurfaced comments about his views on gaming as a whole. In 2013, the director told Esquire that he believed war games were “pathetic,” and stated that those who spend hours playing them are “weak”. As you might imagine, some Call of Duty fans didn't take those comments well.
However, some fans have expressed hope because Taylor Sheridan is writing the Call of Duty script. The prolific writer is known for cranking out a ton of TV shows (he's the co-creator of Yellowstone and creator of its prequels), but his roots began on the big screen with Sicario and Hell or High Water. Indeed, his work on Sicario has directly influenced Call of Duty’s games. 2022's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II in particular took inspiration from Sicario with part of its story focusing on terrorists taking refuge in Mexico and the cartel being used to smuggle weapons for said terrorists. It’s unclear if Berg and Sheridan are planning to adapt the Modern Warfare saga, but it would be the best fit given their respective backgrounds.
There have been attempts to adapt both franchises over the years, but it’s starting to look like things may actually come together this time. Steven Spielberg once made a play to adapt Call of Duty in the late 2000s or early 2010s, around the time of the original Modern Warfare trilogy. Ultimately, Spielberg and Activision couldn’t agree on terms, meaning the project fizzled out. Other filmmakers such as Sicario: Day of the Soldado director Stefano Sollima have attempted to take a crack at it, but nothing ever came of it.
As for Battlefield, both Fox and Paramount tried to develop the franchise into a TV series, with one iteration aiming to adapt the Bad Company subfranchise. Once again, nothing really came of it.
Ultimately, we’ll have to wait and see how it shakes out. It’s clear that neither franchise is sparing any expense to get high-level talent involved with their adaptations. Some think this may be a classic case of twin-films, a scenario where two very similar movies are released in close succession by competing studios. Examples of this include Deep Impact and Armageddon, A Bug’s Life and Antz, and Saving Private Ryan and A Thin Red Line. Either way, it’ll be exciting to get to see these two titans duke it out at the box office, as they do in the world of video games.
Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN's news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.
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