Activision Blizzard starts a film and TV studio to bring its video-game titles to the big and small screens, including a Call of Duty movie and a Skylanders animated series, according to the game developer's statement on Nov. 6, Friday.
Skylanders will be the first to grace the TV with an animated series, which is based on the franchise's toys and game. Since its debut in October 2011, it has generated $3 billion worth of sales. Following up on the toy-to-life video game, Activision Blizzard Studios will produce a Call of Duty movie based on the action-packed combat game.
"Activision Blizzard is home to some of the most successful entertainment franchises in history, across any medium. With the launch of Activision Blizzard Studios, our engaged fans can now watch the games they love come to life across film and television," Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, says in a press release.
Nick van Dyk, former Disney executive, will co-lead the newly formed division in an effort to bring what viewers want to see on the movie and TV screens. Plus, he will be accompanied with a senior creative executive, who will be introduced soon enough.
Getting back to Activision Blizzard Studios' first effort, the voice talents of Justin Long as Spyro, Ashley Tisdale as Stealth Elf and Jonathan Banks as Eruptor, to name a few, will be featured in the Skylanders series. Also, Futurama writer Eric Rogers is currently supervising the production.
Activision Blizzard owns some of the most popular video-game titles of all time, which means that there's a chance we'll get to see shows or movies based on Diablo, StarCraft or Hearthstone (maybe) as well in the future.
Aside from "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time," which generated about $336 million in ticket sales, the video-game genre hasn't made a strong impression in Hollywood yet. But with these upcoming titles along with the "Warcraft" movie, we might get to see a turn in the tide.
Photo: Tarcil Tarcil | Flickr
