Nathanred — 7 months ago(September 05, 2025 06:16 PM)

Activision, the game company that owns the video game franchise, didn't want to give Spielberg full creative control.
https://puck.news/activision-turned-down-spielberg-for-call-of-duty-movie/
Spielberg is famously a big gamer and loves CoD in particular. 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. 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.