The long-awaited Call of Duty movie — written by Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan and produced by Paramount’s David Ellison — just

received a major update from one of the most important figures in gaming. Speaking with Varietyahead of Xbox’s big showing at The Game

Awards, Matt Booty, Microsoft’s president of game content and studios, revealed new insight into why Sheridan was selected and how the film is shaping up internally.

Booty explained that the partnership didn’t come from a top-down studio deal, but from direct conversations between Activision’s senior leadership and Paramount, who felt Sheridan’s character-driven style matched their vision for adapting one of gaming’s biggest franchises.

Sheridan — known for gritty storytelling in projects like Sicario, Hell or High Water, Wind River, Yellowstone and Lioness — is stepping into a project with a 20-year catalog of characters, settings, and sub-franchises. Booty acknowledged that adapting such a sprawling property comes with a Fallout-like challenge:

“If you think about the way that he tells stories, you think about the other things that he’s been a writer on, I think that the team feels that he’s got a good approach to characters and a good approach to story that’ll match up with their vision of what a ‘Call of Duty’ movie [is]. I mean, it’s an interesting thing. It’s a little bit like ‘Fallout,’ right? We sit here and ‘Fallout’ Season 2 is coming up. Where do you start with

making something about ‘Fallout’? Lucky are we that we are shepherds of such a broad canvas of characters and stories, but where do you start? ‘Call of Duty,’ there’s two decades of ‘Call of Duty’ — where do you start? Which character do you pick from which branch of the franchise? And so the team has got a vision where they want to go, and I think Taylor Sheridan will be a good match for what they’ve got in mind.”

The long-awaited Call of Duty movie — written by Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan and produced by Paramount’s David Ellison — just received a major update from one of the most important figures in gaming. Speaking with Varietyahead of Xbox’s big showing at The Game Awards, Matt Booty, Microsoft’s president of game content and studios, revealed new insight into why Sheridan was selected and how the film is shaping up internally.

Booty explained that the partnership didn’t come from a top-down studio deal, but from direct conversations between Activision’s senior leadership and Paramount, who felt Sheridan’s character-driven style matched their vision for adapting one of gaming’s biggest franchises.

Sheridan — known for gritty storytelling in projects like Sicario, Hell or High Water, Wind River, Yellowstone and Lioness — is stepping into a project with a 20-year catalog of characters, settings, and sub-franchises. Booty acknowledged that adapting such a sprawling property comes with a Fallout-like challenge:

“If you think about the way that he tells stories, you think about the other things that he’s been a writer on, I think that the team feels that he’s got a good approach to characters and a good approach to story that’ll match up with their vision of what a ‘Call of Duty’ movie [is]. I mean, it’s an interesting thing. It’s a little bit like ‘Fallout,’ right? We sit here and ‘Fallout’ Season 2 is coming up. Where do you start with making something about ‘Fallout’? Lucky are we that we are shepherds of such a broad canvas of characters and stories, but where do you start? ‘Call of Duty,’ there’s two decades of ‘Call of Duty’ — where do you start? Which character do you pick from which branch of the franchise? And so the team has got a vision where they want to go, and I think Taylor Sheridan will be a good match for what they’ve got in mind.”