Video game maker UbiSoft has been trying to get a good feature film for one of their games made for a while now and may just have hit the jackpot as it’s been announced that Michael Fassbender (‘Prometheus,’ ‘X-Men: First Class’) will be a major component in bringing ‘Assassin’s Creed’ to the big screen. According to Variety, Fassbender has agreed to not only star in the project but also co-produce the film with his partner Conor McCaughan under their company DMC Film.
This is a big departure of what was going on last fall when UbiSoft was in talks with Sony to develop an ‘Assassin’s Creed’ franchise but apparently talks have now been placed on hold. Ever since the disappointing box office earnings from Disney’s ‘Prince of Persia,’ the company decided they wanted more creative control over the next film based on their games and now that the two companies have been stalled, Ubisoft has decided to go ahead with their initial plan to produce ‘Assassin’s Creed’ under their own banner Ubisoft Motion Pictures (UMP).
Together, UMP and DMP Films will work on packaging the project (which includes finding a director and writer for ‘Assassin’s Creed’) before bringing it to distributors. Ubisoft is also looking to raise more financing for what they hope will be a tentpole film through foreign presales and co-production deals.
That doesn’t mean that Sony is completely out of the picture. The studio may still wind up distributing the film and even be involved in financing the project. According to Jean-Julien Baronnet, CEO Ubisoft Motion Pictures, “We’re open to re-discuss with the key studios once the production package is finalized.”
The mere fact that Fassbender, whose star is on the rise with the films ‘Shame’ and ‘Prometheus,’ is now associated with ‘Assassin’s Creed’ is a big coup for the gaming company and proves that they mean to be big business in the movie making industry.
“Michael Fassbender was our first choice (to play the franchise’s iconic hooded hero),” said Baronnet, Michael is an extremely smart, talented, versatile and committed actor.”
For the uninitiated, the ‘Assassin’s Creed’ game revolves around Desmond Miles who finds out he comes from a long line of ancestors who were trained assassins. Miles is kidnapped by a company looking to find the “Pieces of Eden” artifacts that have been hidden throughout history. When the artifacts are put together, they have the ability to stop the apocalypse. In order to gain these artifacts, Miles is strapped into a machine that allows him to occupy the body of his ancestors.
No other specifics about the film has been made as to what time period the movie will take place in or which ancestor will be the focus or whether Fassbender will also appear as Desmond Miles (it’s only been confirmed that he’ll play the Assassin). None-the-less, this is news that has a lot of gamers hopeful that the film version may actually be worth seeing.
