Michael Fassbender to star in and co-produce "Assassin's Creed," movie adaptation of the Ubisoft's videogame franchise, through his company: DMC Film.
Source: Variety
Most Assassin's Creed news lately has been about the fifth game of the franchise, now set during the American Revolution, to launch this fall on October 30th. Now however we've heard that Michael Fassbender, best known among geeks for his work in X-Men: First Class, has begun development in a movie project about the popular video game series.
For those unfamiliar with the game, Assassin's Creed follows the main character Desmond Miles during present day as he is kidnapped by a megacorporation with secret ties to the Knights Templar. They are aware of his lineage and force him to use a machine they have called the "Animus" to insert himself into his ancestor's lives to search for ancient artifacts. Throughout this process he absorbs memories and skills from his ancestors turning Desmond into a warrior himself.
The three main titles are all set in different time periods: The first during the Crusades, the second during the Renaissance and the newest one due out this fall during the American Revolution. Whether the movies will touch on all of these at once or approach them individually is not yet know, though a guess would be the latter since their was originally talk to create a series and not just an individual film.
Ubisoft was formerly in talks with Sony to create a film, or perhaps entire trilogy, last fall but those talks fell through. They have since decided to produce the films themselves and maintain creative control and have since launched their own company: UMP to adapt their games to film. Michael Fassbender was supposedly their first choice for one of the key roles and has partnered with them to produce the film.
By holding onto control of the franchise they hope to avoid another disaster like their last movie adaptation: Prince of Persia. Produced by Disney and Bruckheimer, the final product was a very watered-down "Hollywood" take that utlimately ended up being a disappointment at the box office.
The movie will be raising money for production through pre-sales and co-production deals, which could again involve Sony if they wish to partner with Fassbender. They will also be turning to their own various video game studios to handle visual effects.
Ubisoft hopes to grow it's brand by bringing more of it's game library to both the big and small screens. A cartoon series based on Raving Rabbids is already being worked on for Nickalodeon and they hope to also produce films based on Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell games.
Written or Contributed by: Jeremy Shane
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