Sony Pictures has confirmed it is in talks with Ubisoft Motion Pictures to develop the Assassin’s Creed video game series into a film franchise.
The news is not entirely unexpected, since Ubisoft announced in May, when they opened their motion picture studio, that they would be seeking partners to help produce films from their bestselling Assassin’s Creed, Splinter Cell, and Ghost Recon video games – which have sold over 70 million copies across the three franchises.
The purpose of the studio is to ensure Ubisoft is an actual partner in the production, rather than just selling off the licenses. This will allow them to retain more creative control of how their properties are used as well as bring in more money for the game studio.
For those unfamiliar, Assassin’s Creed tells the story of a young man from the near future who finds himself absconded off to a secret facility where he teams up with an underground group called simply The Assassins in their fight against The Templars.
In the mythology of the story world, there are powerful artifacts called the Pieces of Eden which give the holder some unclearly defined manipulative power over others.
The pieces are lost, but the organization has a device known as the Animus, which allows a person to explore the memories of their genetic ancestors.
This is where our protagonist comes in, as he is the sole descendants of a long line of highly skilled assassins. To discover the locations of the artifacts, he uses the Animus to follow the footsteps of his distant ancestors.
Assassin’s Creed has one of the most engaging stories, with one of the most deeply developed backgrounds in all of gaming, so a series of films, if done well, would make for some excellent cinema, not just fodder for fans of the game series.
The fourth Assassin’s Creed Game, Assassins Creed: Revelations, hits shelves November 15, 2011. The Assassin’s Creed film has no announced production or release dates.
