The cast is still empty, the cameras are years away — so the Smile 2 star just auditioned in public, accent coach and all. Here’s the latest on the Call of Duty movie.
By The Cinephile — CelebnMusic247
Every big video game movie eventually gets the same unofficial casting season: actors who want in, saying so out loud. Call of Duty just got its first volunteer. Ray Nicholson has put his name in the hat for Paramount’s live-action adaptation, per Screen Rant, reporting his interview with Collider.
“I mean, that would be amazing,” Nicholson said, per Screen Rant. “I’m pretty sure that they want all Brits, and I have the worst British accent of all time. So I’m working with a dialect coach secretly, 24/7. But it would be an honor to work with Peter again. Obviously, Call of Duty is really cool IP, and I think the fact that the film industry is getting into the video game space is really cool.”
A reunion pitch for the Call of Duty movie, not a casting announcement
Be clear about what this is and is not. Paramount has not finalized any cast for the film, per Screen Rant, and Nicholson’s comments are an expression of interest — an unusually charming one — not a deal. The “Peter” in his pitch is director Peter Berg, who co-writes the film with Taylor Sheridan and, per Screen Rant, has confirmed the story will be set in the Modern Warfare universe that began with 2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The film is expected to premiere June 30, 2028, per Screen Rant, and the production start date remains under wraps.
The reunion logic is real, though. Nicholson just worked with Berg on The Mosquito Bowl, a World War II film about four American football players who enlisted in the Marine Corps, arriving in U.S. theaters October 30 ahead of a November 25 Netflix debut, per Screen Rant. He stars alongside Nicholas Galitzine, Bill Skarsgård and Tom Francis, and his recent run — Promising Young Woman, Licorice Pizza, Smile 2, Borderline, Novocaine — is exactly the kind of rising, genre-flexible résumé a franchise launch likes to borrow.
There is also a small tell buried in the joke. An actor publicly working the “they want all Brits” angle suggests the Modern Warfare casting chatter — British special forces are the backbone of that game universe — has already reached the town’s ears, even with no names announced. Nicholson campaigning early, with self-deprecation instead of entitlement, is how you stay on a list for a film that is still two years from opening night.
The 247 Take — Nicholson is smart to shoot his shot now, in public, with a laugh attached. Call of Duty will cast a battalion of young soldiers before it casts anything else, and the first actor to make the town picture him in uniform — dialect coach and all — owns a head start no agent’s lunch can buy.
More movie news at CelebnMusic247.com.
Sources: Screen Rant
