Taylor Sheridan’s Paramount Exit Gets Complicated Thanks to New Call of Duty Movie

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Taylor Sheridan built a highly successful career at Paramount, creating popular crime dramas. However, he recently ended his partnership with the studio and signed a new, very lucrative agreement elsewhere.

However, Taylor Sheridan’s departure from Paramount isn’t straightforward. Despite their disagreements, Paramount is hoping he’ll stay on board to co-write the movie adaptation of Call of Duty, a hugely popular video game.

The popular video game series Call of Duty has long been a target for a Hollywood movie adaptation. Activision, which owns the rights to the franchise, recently gave the green light in late August. Amazon Studios secured the rights, beating out Universal Pictures and others in a competitive deal to bring the game to the big screen.

Details are scarce about the new adaptation, but Pete Berg (known for films like Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon, and the series Friday Night Lights) is in talks to direct and co-write it. While no screenwriter is currently attached, Taylor Sheridan is reportedly considering taking on the writing duties.

The filmmaker is returning to directing films after a period focused on television. He’s been incredibly productive for Paramount, building the popular Yellowstone universe, which includes the original series and its prequel spinoffs, 1883 and 1923. More spinoffs are on the way, like Y: Marshals and Beth & Rip, along with other shows he’s created, including Mayor of Kingstown, Landman, Lioness, and Tulsa King.

Taylor Sheridan’s most recent film was the 2021 action thriller Those Who Wish Me Dead, starring Angelina Jolie. He directed the film and co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Koryta and Charles Leavitt. While Warner Bros. Pictures owned that movie, Sheridan also wrote the screenplays for 2021’s Without Remorse (for Prime Video) and 2018’s Sicario: Day of the Soldado (for Sony Pictures).

Working with Berg again would be fantastic. The two have a long-standing friendship and a successful history together, including the Oscar-nominated crime thriller Hell or High Water starring Chris Pine, and the 2017 neo-Western crime thriller Wind River. A sequel to Wind River is in the works, but Taylor Sheridan won’t be involved in writing or directing this time. Kari Skogland will direct, and Patrick Massett and John Zinman are writing the script.

Call of Duty Will Continue a Long List of Hit Video Games Adaptations

We don’t yet know what the Call of Duty movie will be about, but Paramount Pictures has proven it can successfully adapt video games into films. They’ve recently had big hits with the Sonic the Hedgehog movies, which have earned over a billion dollars.

Video game adaptations are proving to be very successful at the box office. The 2023 film The Super Mario Bros. Movie earned over a billion dollars and will have a sequel next year, both distributed by Universal Pictures. Warner Bros. also saw huge success this year with The Minecraft Movie, a collaboration with Legendary, and plans for a sequel are already underway for a 2027 release.

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2025-10-30 20:43