Gary Oldman, Ed Harris and screenwriter David S. Goyer come on board for the next Call of Duty military epic.
Good news for fans of Hollywood A-listers and classic British actors slumming it in video games - you're going to love Call of Duty: Black Ops! Treyarch's just announced that Gary Oldman, Ed Harris and David S. Goyer are on board for the soon-to-be released game.
Ed Harris is a Hollywood veteran of nearly 80 films, ranging from classics like The Right Stuff and Glengarry Glen Ross to more recent efforts such as the western Appaloosa. He's joining the CoD franchise to play CIA operative Jason Hudson. Gary Oldman, arguably most well known for playing Jim Gordon in the recent Batman films, but also a star of British stage and screen (so good in Rosencrantz and Guildernstern Are Dead!) will reprise his role of Viktor Reznov from World at War.
David S. Goyer is another Batman alumni, having penned both films. But he's also known for the Blade series, Dark City, and a mess of other writing, directing and producing credits. He's coming onboard the CoD-train as a script consultant.
It's really great to see such talent coming to Black Ops, but it also raises a few questions. The game really isn't that far away, so you would normally imagine that things like scripting would be down pat by now. Then again, Goyer's consulting, not writing, so perhaps it's more a matter of adding dramatic polish than frantically trying to create something from scratch.
Regardless, Black Ops is now guaranteed to pack the same punch on the story-side as it does on the action side.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012