“I think our process is fairly unique in this way. I know some games do it this way, but we often start with a design of a character rather than anything too ultra specific,” Negus tells Variety. “We’ll have some concept art, maybe more, in terms of how they would be styled. But as far as the specific person goes, we do one to one likeness using our capture process, and often who the character is greatly influenced by the actor that we get in order to play the character. It’s very, very similar to movies. Sometimes they’ll have more or less exactly what they’re looking for and find exactly that person. And we do some of that, but it’s very much the opposite direction, too.”
Clockwise from upper left: Barry Sloane as Captain John Price, Prisca Kim as Ri Ju-Young, Young Mazino as Private Park, María Elisa Camargo as Valeria Garza
Luke Tennie as Lieutenant West (left); Joseph Lee as Kal
The process also required a balance between finding the exact right fit for a part and avoiding typecasting, like when bringing in Mikkelsen, an actor known for playing a great villain, as the game’s main villain.
While Xbox, Activision and Infinity Ward prepare for the launch of “Modern Warfare 4” on Oct. 23 (early access begins Oct. 16), Taylor Sheridan and director Peter Berg are prepping their “Call of Duty” movie for Paramount Pictures. The film is set to take place in the “Modern Warfare” universe, but Negas says he is not sure about whether that means there will be crossover between the “Modern Warfare 4” voice cast and the film’s actors.
“That’s a great question,” Negus says. “Unfortunately, for answering the question, I’m pretty removed from all things ‘Call of Duty’ movie. But I think the simplest answer is whenever we’re casting, we’re trying to find the person that’s going to be able to best play the role and and have a symbiosis between who the person is and who the character is and so it’s a pretty simple calculus for us.”
