Well welcome ladies and gentlemen to another episode of
right click is always Birdman here and today we
are talking call of duty but not really but
kind of but a little bit but not entirely
bear with me I just wanna jump into this
cause I never thought I'd see the day a
Call of Duty® movie has been announced and of all the
things I expected to have some sort of drama
built-in it wasn't it wasn't just the mirror announcement
that a Call of Duty® movie was gonna be made I
want to read this to you there's there's been
article after article this focuses on the actual creation
of it to make a long story short the
cliff notes are just that well Paramount plus has
gotten the contract for it and they're gonna be
making the movie let's let's read about it because
it's not as simple as that but we need
to start here this is from variety .com there's
a bunch of different articles about this a bunch
of different news let's let's talk this Call of Duty® movie
in the works under major Paramount Skydance Microsoft Activision
packed OK it was the run rundown Paramount has
signed a film deal with Microsoft owned video game
publisher Activision of course to bring its Call of Duty® franchise to
the big screen under the partnership Paramount will develop
produce and distribute a live action feature film based
on the Call of Duty® universe which encompasses more than 30
mainline games released since the original cod debut in
2 00 3 the evaluation of the mega deal
was not disclosed I don't think personally that's going
to be disclosed not at least until well after the
game is made or the movie is made rather
I think this is such a volatile thing for
a lot of reasons I think that this is they're gonna
try to keep this as low-key as possible and
some stuff came out about this that I think
kind of proves that point bear with me so
moving on sources to variety that while the pact
is specifically focused on making one blockbuster Call of Duty® movie
the deal encompasses the potential for Paramount to expand
the cod universe across film and TV honestly surprised
it took this long and personally I think that's
a really cool thing and if we're being honest
yes it probably will be a little bit catchy
it probably will be a little bit cringe and
cliché but to be honest when it comes to
making war movies and war TV shows or things
of that nature it's not uncommon seal team was
a very popular one there's there's so many there's
so many modern war war based movies and TV
shows that have come out and honestly if they're
using the call of duty storyline to make that
movie I think it could be a home run
to be completely honest I really do but they
want to say there are no details yet on
what the focus of the Call of Duty® film will be
the first the video game franchisees at its core
a series of first person shooter military titles yeah
fair many of the games of interconnected storylines and
characters like the Black ops subseries from developer Treyarch
which is about to release Black ops seven this
fall yep the call of duty pack comes from
comes a month after Paramount closed it's $8 billion merger
with David Ellison Skydance and is the latest in
a line of splashy movies since the merger was
approved the company Lord Stranger Things creator the duffer Brothers
over from Netflix and shouted out $7.7 billion to become
the home of the UFC your ultimate fighting championship events
for seven years now settled within Microsoft gaming Activision
was itself part of a megamerger just two years
ago when the Microsoft completed it's $68.7 billion purchase of
Activision blizzard which gave the tech company control over
Call of Duty® and many other popular video game titles now
this is a good time to break in and
make something very clear here Microsoft acquiring Activision and
Call of Duty® blizzard is a double edge sword right because
on one hand OK sure put big money behind
it you get big things and realistically the biggest
thing that we got from a day-to-day standpoint is
that Call of Duty® and a lot of its titles including the every
year new release is now on game pass Microsoft
game pass or Xbox game pass so if you
have an Xbox or if you have a PC
you can pay 10 $20 a month something like
that and you can download it's the entire archive
of their game pass titles and play them at
well I keep Xbox game pass because I have
an Xbox I have multiple Xbox and I have
a PC that allows me to play a lot of different
games and I do feel like I get my
moneys worth out of it genuinely I really do feel
like I get my moneys worth out of it and
on top of that it gives me the chance
to play a lot of titles that I normally wouldn't spend
the money for I know there's a lot of people trying
to do these kinds of subscription services but nobody's
come close in the gaming sphere that's what Xbox
game pass is doing so Microsoft has a lot of money
that they can back these kinds of projects with
and with all fairness Activision does as well blizzard
does as well now Activision is a very volatile
let me just let me just make this clear
Activision is very volatile company especially when it comes
to Call of Duty® they've gotten themselves in a lot of heat over
a long period of time because they make decisions
that are monetarily based rather than developmentally based so
we've talked about this a lot in the past and
I'm not gonna get into specifics but they've made
decisions from a high-level of what Call of Duty® should look
like in the reality is you have suits making
decisions for something that they don't understand and I'm
not I'm not trying to swing a low blower
or anything like that but it is it is
true if that is the fact of the matter
now we can get into details we can get
into specifics and I can get really anal about
how I break this down but the reality is
Activision has in Microsoft has a lot of control over overall
of duty and the overarching narrative that it pushes
what it plays like with the gameplay is what
the changes are with the yearly update is and
the sad part is when it was a rotation
of Treyarch sledgehammer in infinity war creating these games
and then just being produced there was a lot of soul
in those games some of the highest points the
highest peaks of Call of Duty® came from that time when
Activision wasn't just wanting to control the dollars in
Italy well we look at something like this and
we say OK you've got almost a $70 billion purchase
of this clearly they care enough to do it
right well here's where things get even weirder and
they are absolutely right here for years Hollywood struggle
to crack the code on video game adaptations but
more recently is found success producing hit screen adaptations
in Mortal Kombat super Mario Brothers and as of this
year a Minecraft movie Paramount has previously scored it's
with it's adaptations of sonic the hedgehog scored as
a heck of a term which is Spond sequel
and spinoff streaming shows yeah that's a really important
part here yes it had hit adaptations of Mortal Kombat
super Mario Brothers in Minecraft now Minecraft let's be
honest Minecraft was a very popular movie because it
was a meme and that's I'm not I'm not
talking down on it but it was a meme
and it was designed to be kind of a
meme and let's be even more honest with ourselves
a lot of the people that that this game had its
loyal fan based of where people that started playing
10 years ago they're all 10 years older now
they're either teenagers now late teenagers really or adults
I grew up as I grew up playing Minecraft
and you know I'm I don't this movie doesn't
work with me I'm I'm kind of past the
point of just sitting here thinking OK chicken jockey
is funny and like I get it but it
was designed to be a meme so if you
can be lighthearted about it you can appreciate it
that's why I do appreciate it it doesn't take
itself too seriously well things like super Mario Brothers
and I can sit here and name off I
was just having this conversation with my wife the
lexicon of video game movies are poor the World of Warcraft
movie was horrifically received because it was a horrific
movie the Halo TV show went in a lot of ways
went against the spirit of Halo the oh God
assassins Creed I will never forgive them for making
that god-awful moving my point is that they are
absolutely right in this in this article Hollywood has
struggled to crack the code on video game adaptations
and honestly I think something like Call of Duty® not just
because of its previous success in in the gaming
sphere yes absolutely OK fair but this is also
I mean if we're gonna be honest this as
as as a as an IP goes this is
about as home run as it gets when you
compared to things like the terminal list or 13
hours there's there's it's a friggin war movie or
a war TV show like yes you can screw
it up but it's a lot harder because the content
is not Minecraft the content is not super Mario
Brothers it's something that is designed intentionally intentionally to
be relatable to the current or historical understanding that's
why they got their start in World War II they could
make something real out of this the article goes on
to say with Call of Duty® it gets access to not
just the most successful video game franchises of all
time one that has sold 5 00 million copies
go globally and drew $30 billion in revenue as of
20 2 2 but also a video game franchise
that has not previously been adapted for film or
TV as a lifelong fan of Call of Duty® this is
truly a dream come true Alison who serves his
Paramount Paramount chairman and CEO said in a statement
from the first Allied campaigns in the original Call of Duty®
through modern warfare and Black ops I've spent countless
hours playing this franchise that I absolutely love being
trusted by Activision and players worldwide will bring this
extraordinary storytelling universe to the big screen is both
an honor and a responsibility that we don't take
lightly throughout history call of duty is captured our
imagination with incredible action and intense stories that I
brought millions of people together from around the world
and that focus on making incredible call of duty
games remains unwavering Activision President Bob Coage said in
a statement with Paramount we have found a fantastic
partner who will work with who we will work
with to take that visceral breathtaking action to the
big screen in a defining cinematic moment the film
will honor and expand upon what has been made
what has made this franchise great in the first
place and we cannot wait to get started OK
let's look at this holistically this article everything here
maybe not necessarily a green flag but it's not
a red flag down the when I hear Rob
Cox hostage say this stuff and when I hear
Allison talk about with the CEO of the Paramount
like when I hear them say this stuff like
yeah it's it's PC and it's it's very it
sounds like a press release right and I get
that it has to to some degree but if you're
gonna sit here and cap this off with the
Activision see Activision presidents statement you have to understand that
Activision amongst its call of duty fans is not
well received and it hasn't been for quite some
time this at face value to people who were
just looking at the news may go OK cool
call of duty great carry on but for the
people who are actually that's target of a call
of duty movie who are also the target of
the call of duty game this goes alarm bells
alarm bells and you start to wonder what what's
what's what's the catch is it turns out there
is a catch this stemmed from Steven Spielberg I can't
believe I'm saying this but Steven Spielberg wanted to make
a direct call of duty movie he says he's
a huge gamer in place card and he even
pitched his vision to Activision all he wanted was
the final cut in full control over production that
is completely completely reasonable to ask it's friggin Steven Spielberg
Activision got spooked and then sold the rights to
Paramount where they'd have more control over the process
OK Activision have more control over the process understand
that is a bad thing objectively that is a
bad thing Activision 's direct control over the development
of Call of Duty® has let it down a very seriously
bad path if you don't believe me go look
at the reviews and go look at Twitter when
updates come out hey we want this no we're
gonna put this out instead it's like why nobody
asked for that and I'm I'm about five years
in on that cycle of Call of Duty® happening and it's
because Activision does things with the primary and soul
focus of money I understand it's a company you
don't have to lecture me I know it's a frigging
company but remember your roots it's the same conversation
I have with people about how streaming services have
lost the friggin plot you were just replacing the
exact same thing that you said you were swearing
to fight against i.e. cable and DIRECTV and all
that kind of crap like you have become the
thing that you said you were not going to
become I'm not gonna sit here in fame sympathy well
Activision got spooked and sold the rights to Paramount
where they said yeah as long as we can
control it well you controlling it is what put
us in this part in the first place like
this is why the reviews have been bad this
is why your sales have gone down this is
why we have problems this is why the CDL
doesn't work anymore this is why when you watch
a broadcast of it the friggin scoreboard doesn't work
this is why the game is horrifically optimized I
can sit here and go on but these are
direct reflections of the Activision influence in the Call of Duty®
franchise this IP has been actively just reduced down
to nothing but how do we put this in
to make a money maker and nothing more yes
it can make money but if you give the
people what they actually want you'll make even more
money that's the reality Activision does not live in
reality they have no desire to live in reality
what they have is a desire where Paramount is
flushed with cash Microsoft is flush with cash and
Activision being under all of that can go well
if you'll let me do it and let me
have control here's what we'll do I could be
proven wrong but when I sit here and I
read all of this and it's green flag green
flag and OK oh that's weird oh wait Activision
could've had Steven Spielberg who actually cared about the source
material and you just went with the people with
the signs with over a like $80 billion backing you
yeah I'm not really surprised I'm not really surprised
I should be I am disappointed shouldn't be but
I am Activision consistently gets in their way and
here's the reality I could be wrong about all
of my preconceived notion I hope I'm wrong Call of Duty®
is the biggest personal franchise to me because I
know what it's done for my life and I'm
I'm one a few people who can actually say that
with a straight facing it means something but man
come on Activision has gotta stop getting Black seven
is going to be a very maker break thing
for them and I think they know that Black
ops six was really received so poorly they know
that seven has to bring the things that the people
want we get specialist back we get a lot of the
stuff back who knows maybe this will be it
but if they're gonna get their hands in the
TV and movie world and they can't get off
of their high horse it's not gonna go anywhere
and that's just the unfortunate truth that's it I
wanna leave it at that because this is a
very interesting topic and I think it expands a lot more
things than just Call of Duty® because we've seen so many
horrific adaptations of video games to movies I think
this could really lay some groundwork or it could
just keep taking a sledgehammer to it no pun
intended if you know you know anyways that's all
for today Birdman as always thank you offer watching go
check us out on right side media .org hit
us up check out all the other stuff but
for now I'll see you guys in the next
one have a good one