Paramount Pictures Makes Major Announcement at CinemaCon — Pete Berg to Direct, Taylor Sheridan Writing the Script
Paramount Pictures dropped a big one during its Thursday presentation at CinemaCon, confirming that the ‘Call of Duty’ feature film — years in the making — will release worldwide on June 30, 2028. With the announcement, the studio officially greenlit a project that both the gaming and film industries have been watching closely for years.
The film will be directed by Pete Berg, whose career is built on grounded, technically precise action dramas like Deepwater Horizon and Lone Survivor. The script comes from Taylor Sheridan — creator of Yellowstone, Sicario, and Wind River — one of the most in-demand writer-producers in American entertainment today.
In a video message screened for theater owners at CinemaCon, Berg said, “Taylor and I are both deeply connected to the special ops community. We want to portray those elite soldiers on a human level, but also bring amazing scale.” That’s a clear indicator the film won’t simply be an action spectacle — Berg and Sheridan are building a character-driven military drama with personal stakes at its core.
‘Call of Duty’ is one of the highest-grossing entertainment franchises on the planet. Since the first title launched in 2003, the franchise has released more than 30 mainline games, generated over $35 billion in lifetime revenue, and pulled in more than 1 billion players globally — a property that convinced an entire generation there’s “a soldier in all of us.”
The franchise is backed by Microsoft-owned publisher Activision. When the deal was first announced in September 2024, sources indicated that while the focus remains on a single feature film, the agreement gives Paramount the option to expand the ‘Call of Duty’ universe across both film and television platforms.
For Paramount, this project is the studio’s most ambitious video game adaptation since it built Sonic the Hedgehog into a profitable film and streaming franchise. The Super Mario Bros. Movie and the recent A Minecraft Movie have since shown the industry that gaming IP can consistently deliver at the box office.
Cast and plot details for the ‘Call of Duty’ film haven’t been disclosed yet. Given that the game is a first-person shooter military series, which character or campaign anchors the story is still unknown — those details are expected to surface in the coming months.
With Berg and Sheridan attached, Microsoft-Activision’s full corporate backing, and Paramount’s worldwide theatrical reach, ‘Call of Duty’ has every ingredient to be one of the defining blockbusters of summer 2028.
