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Award-winning film and television producer Stacey Sher has been named co-president of Activision Blizzard Studios, the video game publisher’s newly formed film and television unit.
Sher will work alongside former Disney executive and co-president Nick van Dyk in developing television shows and films based on Activision Blizzard’s game franchises, which include Call of Duty, Skylanders and StarCraft.
There has been a less than stellar history of film adaptations of video games (see “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within,” among many others). But the same could be said of comic book-inspired movies, once upon a time, before films like “Avengers: Age of Ultron” reaped $1.4 billion in global box office proceeds, notes van Dyk.
“The first Marvel movie was ‘The Punisher,'” said van Dyk. “Don’t write the obituary too early.”
Sher said she was intrigued by the opportunity to adapt such well-established titles, with devoted fan followings, into compelling films and TV shows with stories and characters that honor the original franchise.
“The intellectual property is extraordinary,” Sher said. “Both playing it with my son, and negotiating with him to stop and do his homework, has made it a part of my life on a daily basis.”
The veteran entertainment executive produced such Academy Award-nominated films as Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” and Steven Soderbergh’s “Erin Brockovich.” Sher’s extensive film credits also include “Pulp Fiction,” “The Hateful Eight” and Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center.” She also executive-produced Comedy Central’s “Reno 911.”
“My son is a massive Call of Duty fan, so I became a lot cooler to him this week,” Sher said. “I thought I was cool before, when he could come to [the] set and get a zombie bite from people who do ‘The Walking Dead.’ I’m infinitely cooler now.”
Tarantino issued a statement this morning, lauding Sher.
“Stacey’s uncompromising commitment to creativity and great storytelling is why she has been an amazing collaborator on the three films we have made together, and a cherished friend over the past 20 years,” the director said.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
