Call of Duty is no stranger to Hollywood. While a couple of big time movie stars are going to do voice work in the upcoming Black Ops, this is far from a first for the series.
There have been rumblings of a possible Call of Duty movie. Those rumblings were followed up by comments from Kevin McKidd, the voice actor for Modern Warfare character Soap, in which he said "there are talks of a feature film".
The inclusion of Hollywood talent in the Call of Duty credits is nothing new to the series. Call of Duty games have been star-stubbed affairs from the getgo. The first Call of Duty game, released in 2003, featured voice work from Jason Statham (Snatch, Transporter series) and Giovanni Ribisi (Saving Private Ryan, Avatar). The game was also scored by Michael Giacchino, who would go on score Pixar films like The Incredibles and Up as well as scoring J.J. Abrams projects like Star Trek and Lost.
2004's Call of Duty: Finest Hour was penned by Michael Schiffer, who produced the late 1990s dark comedy Very Bad Things. The game had Dennis Haysbert doing voice work. Haysbert is best known for his role as President David Palmer in the TV series 24 and as Pedro Cerrano in Major League.
The following year, Call of Duty 2: Big Red One was lighter on movie stars than the first Call of Duty game, but had Mark Hamill of Star Wars fame narrate the game. Hamill starred in 1980 World War II film The Big Red One, which was based on the real war experiences of the film's director Samuel Fuller.
2006's Call of Duty 3, which was developed by Black Ops studio Treyarch, featured talented voice actors, but alas, did not feature any name movie stars. The studio's 2008 follow-up, Call of Duty: World at War, brought out the big name stars. Both Gary Oldman and Kiefer Sutherland turned in performances for the game. Oldman will be reprising his role for the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops.
One of the most memorable characters in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Captain Price, was voiced by veteran British TV and film actor Billy Murray. The 2009 sequel, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, had actors like Lance Henriksen of Alien franchise fame and Keith David of boy-he's-been-in-a-lot-of-movies fame. The game featured a soundtrack composed by Hans Zimmer, one of the biggest name composers in Hollywood. It was Zimmer's first video game score.
Call of Duty hasn't gone Hollywood. It's always been Hollywood. It's just more Hollywood now. Hollywoodier, if you will.