I suppose it was inevitable: Less than a year after Activision and Paramount confirmed that a Call of Duty movie is in the works, The Hollywood Reporter says a Battlefield movie is on the way too.
It’s still very early in the process—the report says the “hot package” is currently being pitched to studios and streaming platforms—but Christopher McQuarrie, who’s written, produced, and directed the last few Mission Impossible movies, among others, is attached to do all of the above for this film, while Michael B. Jordan is onboard as a producer and may also possibly star in it, depending on how things shake out. Electronic Arts is also attached as a producer.
That’s kind of ironic, because when the Call of Duty movie’s release date was announced, I suggested the plot (which we still don’t know about) could very well end up something like Without Remorse, the tale of an unstoppable American hero caught up in a high-stakes conflict between the US and Russia starring—you guessed it—Michael B. Jordan.
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Then again, The Terminal List starring Chris Pratt might be a better fit—it’s a series, not a movie, but Pratt literally says “Now you’re in the battlefield” in it.
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This, as I’ve previously said about the Call of Duty movie, highlights the challenge both of these projects face: How do you make a film based on either of them that’s not just a generic war movie with a brand stapled to it—especially given how much both series have borrowed from war films like Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down, and, never forget, The Big Red One? It’s literally the title of a Call of Duty game.
(21 years later, it still hasn’t come to PC, but we remain hopeful.)
Call of Duty could follow along one of the Modern Warfare plots and probably do alright (hell, they could just remake Big Red One and call it a day), but Battlefield doesn’t have that established cast of killers that’s immediately recognizable as those guys from that game, even if you can’t remember their names. I’ve played two or three Battlefields over the years, and the most I can recall about any of them is that one was modern, and two (I think?) weren’t. And yeah, that’s just me, but I’d bet good money that in this one thing, at least, I’m not too far off the norm.
Be that as it may, THR says interest in the Battlefield film project is running high, and “it will not be cheap” for whoever picks it up. The report also states that a theatrical release is being prioritized, so it’s not clear at this point whether streaming powerhouse Netflix will get a shot at it.
There’s no hint of a release date yet, obviously, but given that the Call of Duty movie project seems to be considerably further along, I wouldn’t expect Battlefield to hit screens for at least a few years—and that’s assuming it doesn’t end up like the Splinter Cell movie, spending a decade in limbo before someone mercifully pulls the plug.
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