Peter Berg Once Called ‘Call of Duty’ Gamers “Weak” and “Pathetic” — and Is Now Supposed to Direct the Film Adaptation

So, this is amusing.

A few months ago, Paramount confirmed that a “Call of Duty” movie was officially in development through a new deal with Activision. Taylor Sheridan and Peter Berg will co-write the script, with Berg on board to direct.

Berg and Sheridan are lifelong friends who have been eyeing a collaboration on a new project together. In terms of uncharted IP, it doesn’t get any bigger than “Call of Duty.”

Now, given the rabid fanbase that accompanies any video game adaptation, and the pushback that often occurs (just ask Zach Cregger), there might now be a slight problem with Berg’s hiring.

A new unearthed 2013 interview has Berg calling people who play war video games “pathetic” and “weak.” No, really, that’s what he actually said, and he goes further than that, explicitly citing “Call of Duty” as an example.

Pathetic. Keyboard courage. Can’t stand it. Anyone that sits around playing video games for hours… It’s weak. Get out, do something. The only people that I give a Call of Duty get-out-of-jail-free card to is the military. They’re out there serving and they’re bored and they want to entertain themselves? Okay, maybe.

Houston, we have a problem here. I now expect Berg to exit the “Call of Duty” movie. It could be a week, it could be a month, but it will happen. There’s no way Paramount can keep him after quite literally insulting the entire fanbase.

You know what’s the right thing to do? Hiring Steven Spielberg, who had pitched himself to direct the “Call of Duty” adaptation. A few years back, he pitched his film to Activision with a vision for bringing the blockbuster gaming franchise to the big screen. Spielberg, known to be a passionate gamer and a major fan of CoD, was all in. The problem? The “Spielberg Deal.” That meant top-of-market pay, final cut, and full creative and marketing control. Activision wasn’t willing to cede that much power.

“Call of Duty” is one of the most successful video game franchises of all time, having sold more than 400M copies worldwide since 2003. Known for its cinematic first-person shooter campaigns and wildly popular multiplayer modes, the franchise has become a cultural juggernaut. A movie adaptation has long been seen as inevitable.

Was Berg ever a good fit? His films have been very attuned to rural, conservative America — blue-collar, middle-class heroes on duty, serving and protecting. Berg’s “Lone Survivor” followed that mold, and it was a stellar war movie. That’s precisely the context in which Berg made his comments about war video games, which have now come back to bite him in the behind.

Berg has been stuck in a rut of late with two consecutive duds, one of them a Netflix abomination (“Spenser Confidential”) and the other a failed CIA military flick (“Mile 22”).