Games that’re adapted from movies and television shows are generally bad, but there are plenty of exceptions. Movies and shows based on games, however, are pretty much always horrendous insults to both the audience and the source material, but that’s not stopping companies from making them. Activision, which is one of the largest game publishers out there at the moment, announced earlier today that it’s formed a studio specifically for making movies and shows based off its vast arsenal of games, which includes franchises like Call of Duty and Warcraft.
You might think that, after this week’s surprise $5.9 billion acquisition, Activision might be out of big announcements to make. But it turns out they’ve got at least one more. The mega-publisher announced today that they’re launching a studio for film and TV projects in their huge stable of francises, which includes Call of Duty, Destiny, Starcraft, Warcraft, and Diablo. First up, the new studio plans to develop a cartoon series based around the hugely successful Skylanders toy/game series. They’ve got a ton of talent involved, including Jonathan Banks (!) aka Mike from Better Call Saul. Says Activision: “Activision Blizzard Studios’ first production will be “SkylandersTM Academy,” an animated TV series based on the award-winning Skylanders game. Currently in production under the supervision of showrunner Eric Rogers (“Futurama”), “Skylanders Academy” will feature the voices of Justin Long (“Alvin and the Chipmunks,” “Ask Me Anything”) as Spyro, Ashley Tisdale (“Phineas and Ferb,” “High School Musical”) as Stealth Elf, Jonathan Banks (“Breaking Bad,” “Better Call Saul”) as Eruptor and Norm Macdonald (“Saturday Night Live”) as Glumshanks. Additional voice talent includes Harland Williams and Richard Horvitz.”
