Ubisoft Motion Pictures and Sony are developing an adaptation of Assassin’s Creed, a wildly popular video game franchise.
This is the first major motion picture project for the new studio, which was estalished specifically to create film and television properties based on the Ubisoft game franchises.
Assassin’s Creed – and it’s sequels – is one of the best examples of great storytelling in video game history. The world that the writers created for this game is storied and compelling, revealing an alternate history filled with conspiracies, and a series of gameplay mechanics and sequences which are clever and moving. Seeing the AC story depicted onto the silver screen will be very interesting, in fact, one might ultimately prefer the story as a series of films, since gameplay may get in the way of telling a great story.
The tale in summation, if you’re not familiar, is thus:
In the near future, bartender Desmond Miles discovers that he is descended from a long line of important figures in an organization called simply the Assassin’s, which have been waging a war with The Templars (now called Abstergo Corp.) for the freedom of the world.
Throughout history, the Templars have been making moves to take over the leadership of the governments and religions of men, in order to fulfill what they see as their grand destiny to lead mankind to a golden age. The Assassin’s stop them the best way they know how, by killing them swiftly and quietly from the shadows.
The fight has waged back and forth for centuries, and Desmond finds himself at a key moment. The Templars are searching for a powerful artifact; a Piece of Eden, a small hi-tech device left on earth by an ancient civilization which came before man.
To find it, they developed a machine, the Animus, which can analyze the genetic memories of an individual, and allow them to explore the events in the lives of their ancestors. That’s where they need Desmond. One of his distant Ancestors, Altaïr ibn-La’Ahad hid the Piece of Eden from The Templars hundreds of years ago, and they’ve never been able to find it. They force Desmond to explore the memories of Altaïr to try to discover where the artifact is hidden. Desmond must play along with the project, living Altaïr’s life in the machine, while trying to find a way to escape Abstergo in-between sessions.
The studio has recruited Michael Fassbender, one of the most talented and sought-after actors on the genre scene right now, to play both Altaïr and Desmond.
There will definitely be more work fo Fassbender If the project is successful, as the sequels to the game follow Desmond as he explores the memories of more Assassin ancestors, each of which Fassbender would play – in addition to continuing the role of Desmond.
The actor is going all in on this franchise, having signed on to also co-produce the potentially long series of films.
No production or release dates have yet been announced for Assassin’s Creed, but if I’d say a good guess would be for primary photography to begin in the fall of 2013 – after Fassbender is done with the X-Men: First Class sequel – and a theatrical release in the blockbuster season of 2015.
