Spielberg wanted to direct 'Call of Duty': Paramount is finally confirming what I reported last week: A Call of Duty movie is in the works via a new deal with Activision. But no talent is attached yet, which is very different from the Universal pitch for the project. Per three sources, Steven Spielberg really wanted to direct the CoD movie, and his Amblin teamed with Universal dealmaker Jimmy Horowitz to present the filmmaker's vision for one of the world's biggest gaming franchises.

Spielberg is famously a big gamer and loves CoD in particular. But with Spielberg comes the famous Spielberg Deal, which includes top-of-market economics, final cut, and full control over production and marketing. That spooked the team from Activision, now owned by Microsoft, which instead went with David Ellison's pitch that offered much more control over the process. Given the constraints, let's see who Paramount gets to direct that movie…

What I’m Hearing: Spielberg’s ‘Call of Duty’ Pitch, Phil Sun’s Exit, The Rock Rebrand & A Rotten Reckoning - Puck

Steven Spielberg really wanted to direct a 'Call of Duty' movie 🪖

• He's a gamer and plays CoD

• He pitched his vision to Activision — wanted final cut and full control over production

• Activision got spooked and then sold the rights to Paramount where they'd have more control

(via Puck News)

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— Culture Crave 🍿 (@culturecrave.co) 5 September 2025 at 07:36

These dumb MFs 💀

Dumb move from Activision, the guy's one the greatest filmmakers working today and if anyone could make a Call of Duty film actually good, it'd be him.

It'll probably be crap now, if Activision are insisting on control.

Saving Private Ryan, also the creator of Medal of Honour, which actually directly led to Call of Duty being a thing in the first place because people from that team left to form Infinity Ward and created Call of Duty as a direct rival to Medal of Honour. Legendary filmmaker who is a big fan of Call of Duty but Activision seems to think CoD is Mona Lisa or something, Lmao.

I can understand sometimes not wanting to give up creative control but come on, it's Call of Duty...I can't possibly think of a way that Steven Spielberg could damage the Call of Duty brand, and the Paramount film is likely to be dogshit anyway, at least Spielberg has a high chance of making it an actually good film. What were they so worried about? They've already got multiple different CoDs with multiple different storylines, they've got grounded CoDs and futuristic CoDs to Zombies! There's whacky shit in the Campaigns and fucking Beavis and Butthead in the MP. Steven Spielberg I imagine would have told a grounded story with some emotion and not went insane with it.

Has he really made a decent movie in the last 20 years though? Im sure he would be better than most, but I dont know if this would have been anywhere near a cinematic masterpiece these days.

Yeah the guy's proven himself over and over again to be a master of action cinema, from the aforementioned Saving Private Ryan to the likes of Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Last Crusade, Jurassic Park, even Munich for a more topical military thriller type deal.

And yeah, it's not like the series was some bastion of artistic integrity to begin with. Utterly baffling decision.

If there was any person I would be willingly give up creative freedom for, it would be Shigeru Miyamoto of course. But if I just so happened to want to make a movie, it would probably be Steven Spielberg. The guy made too many great movies to count them.

Dumb move for sure, I'm expecting another soulless piece. But I'm curious if and how they will pack in lootboxes and 360 no-scopes in the movie.

I mean, quality is subjective of course, but I personally thought the likes of Munich, Tintin, War Horse, Ready Player One, and Bridge of Spies were pretty good.

2005 - 2025

• War of the Worlds - 6.6 IMDB / 42% RT
• Munich - 7.5 IMDB / 83% RT
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - 6.2 IMDB / 53% RT
• The Adventures of Tintin - 7.3 IMDB / 74% RT
• War Horse - 7.2 IMDB / 74% RT
• Lincoln - 7.3 IMDB / 80% RT
• Bridge of Spies - 7.6 IMDB / 87% RT
• THE BFG - 6.3 IMDB / 57% RT
• The Post - 7.2 IMDB / 74% RT
• Ready Player One - 7.4 IMDB / 77% RT
• West Side Story - 7.1 IMDB / 93% RT
• The Fabelmans - 7.5 IMDB / 83% RT

I'd say the general consensus is that the majority of this meets the criteria of what would be considered at the very minimum, decent, I'd say most of those would fit either the "good" or "great" bracket based on typical ratings. I think Spielberg of the "old school" directors has managed to remain fairly consistent in that he still manages to pump out good films on a fairly regular basis, I don't know if I'd call any of them "cinematic masterpieces" but that's an incredibly high bar and one that CoD will never be anyway, Lol.

Based on what I know about Activision, I'm going to speculate that Spielberg wanted to make a grounded, emotional military story which doesn't glorify things as much as Call of Duty does, while Activision probably wants some pro-military, American propaganda slop, full with explosions and Marvel-like humour to appeal to the kids.

I could be wrong and Activision surprises me with some mature story but I doubt it.