All Articles: Assassin’s Creed

An animated series based on Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse will make its Netflix debut this Friday, July 7. The Castlevania series was produced by Adi Shankar, and earlier today, he popped up on Facebook to announce his project… an animated series set within the world of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed.

Unlike Castlevania, Shankar’s next series won’t be a direct adaptation, and will tell an original tale in the Assassin’s Creed universe:

I’m happy to let you guys know that I’ve selected my next project! I played the first edition of Assassin’s Creed the year I moved to Los Angeles to pursue my dream. At that moment I knew absolutely no one in the industry and could never have imagined that one day Ubisoft would ask me to take the world of Assassin’s Creed and create an original story set in it as an anime series. If anyone tells you not to follow your passion in life they are wrong.

As of now, there’s no release date for Shankar’s Assassin’s Creed series, but it’s probably still quite a ways out. And that’s because Shankar will next be shepherding the secibd season of Castlevania, which will be available on Netflix sometime in 2018.

Last year, Michael Fassbender (as Callum Lynch, the descendant of an Assassin know as Aguilar) and Marion Cotillard (as Sophia Rikkin, the leader of the Animus Project) lent their talents to Ubisoft as part of the upcoming Assassin’s Creed film adaptation. And now, Jimmy Kimmel has pulled back the curtain on the film’s first trailer. Eager viewers of Jimmy Kimmel Live! saw it yesterday, but the rest of us can watch right here.

Unlike most game-to-movie adaptations, Ubisoft was heavily involved in bringing Assassin’s Creed to the silver screen. Set during the Spanish Inquisition in the 15th century, Ubisoft is even planning to integrate Fassbender’s Aguilar (and the events of the film) into the franchise’s sprawling story.

Assassin’s Creed will open in theaters on December 21.

Are you ready for your first look at Michael Fassbender in costume for the Assassin’s Creed movie? Then I suggest you head over to Yahoo right now.

Fassbender will star as Callum Lynch, a man who uses the Animus to experience the life of Aguilar, an ancestor in 15th century Spain. As an Assassin, Aguilar (and Lynch) will battle the Knights Templar in the film. Neither character will be familiar to fans of the games, but Ubisoft plans to incorporate Aguilar (and the events of the film) into the franchise’s sprawling story.

Assassin’s Creed will also star Marion Cotillard, Michael Kenneth Williams, and Ariane Labed. Filming is expected to begin today and the movie should arrive on theaters on December 21, 2016.

Michael Fassbender has made quite a name for himself with science fiction fans over the past year, taking over the role of Magneto in X-Men: First Class and as the synthetic David in Prometheus. Today, the British actor paired up with Ubisoft Motion Pictures for his next sci-fi role, as Desmond in the upcoming Assassin’s Creed movie.

Fassbender will actually be performing triple duty on the film. In addition to his role as Desmond, he’ll also play one of Desmond’s ancestors as well as producing the movie through his production company, DMC Film. It’s currently unknown if the film will follow Altair, Ezio, Connor, or an entirely new character in the Assassin’s fight against the Templars.

“Michael Fassbender was our first choice to play the franchise’s iconic hooded hero. Michael is an extremely smart, talented, versatile and committed actor,” said Jean-Julien Baronnet, CEO of Paris-based Ubisoft Motion Pictures.

It might be a while before we see the Assassin’s Creed movie as Ubisoft Motion Pictures has yet to select a writer or director for the project.

[Source: Variety]

Hollywood and the video game industry don’t mix, it’s almost a fact.  When video games cross into movie territory, we get things like House of the Dead and that Super Mario Bros. movie that still haunts my nightmares.

Just last year, Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia franchise opened in theaters to a lukewarm critical and commercial reception, but Ubisoft has another acrobatic franchise that they hope to bring to theaters: Assassin’s Creed.

Sony Pictures has just signed a deal with Ubisoft to bring their stealth/action franchise to the big screen. Ubisoft had a big caveat though: They want control of everything. And the unprecedented deal does seem to give Ubisoft control of everything including the script, casting, budget and the release date.

The Assassin’s Creed franchise is huge, with combined franchise sales reaching above 30 million copies, and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations dropping next week. It’ll be interesting to see whether the Assassin’s Creed movie will be another unfortunate game-to-film adaptation or whether it makes a killing at the box office.

[Source: New York Magazine]

Earlier this month, we explored the convoluted relationship between video games and film, noting the creation of Ubisoft Motion Pictures to handle the movie adaptations for their games. Today, we learned a little more info about the three main properties being looked at for the studio’s first projects: Assassin’s Creed, Splinter Cell, and Ghost Recon.

“We want to keep ownership, retain control over the film content, and we’re open to work with studios on the development of our projects,” said division head Jean-Julien Baronnet. “Our strategy is not to diversify but to bolster the appeal of our franchises.”

The goal seems to be staying away from all the mistakes and common criticism most mainstream adaptations have suffered under – they don’t represent the games. Instead, Ubisoft Montreal looks to keep their studios in the loop at many stages in production, from getting project members familiar with “the DNA” of the franchise, making sure the stories are consistent, and even up to working on the project itself, with Ubisoft Digital Arts and Hybride Technologies looking to lend a hand.

Ubisoft Motion Pictures claims to have already received interest from U.S. studios and screenwriters, and will be travelling to Los Angeles in June to meet with potential partners. Looking to have a script by the end of the year, hopefully this endeavor will lead to the rise of a respectable video game film culture.