The big screen adaptation of Assassin’s Creed has yet to start filming, but with an impressive cast made up of names like Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard (along with their director from Macbeth), there’s already a lot of reasons to be excited about what’s to come in the movie. The awesome first image of the X-Men star suited up certainly helped to build excitement too, and with Ubisoft taking a key role in its development, many are hoping that Assassin’s Creed will be the release which finally fixes the video game movie genre.
Jean-Julien Baronnet, the CEO of Ubisoft Motion Pictures, has been doing a good job of trying to put the minds of fans at ease, too, especially with comparisons to movies like Batman Begins and Blade Runner:
“[Michael Fassbender] accepted very quickly. And it was the only actor which we thought was obvious. So we started with the actor, which is incongruous. Even more incongruous, he engaged us with nothing. There was no script, no studio or anything. We told him we were going to build the project together, we have a huge brand and we want to make a make a film with references to feature films like Batman Begins and Blade Runner. That is why we tend to. He was promised that he could work with the writers, we would associate it with all key creative choices.”
That’s a bold comparison, but this isn’t the first time we’ve heard that a lot has gone into ensuring that this adaptation of Assassin’s Creed doesn’t make the same mistakes as the likes of Hitman: Agent 47 and Doom. Ubisoft’s involvement is also a good thing, especially as they’re known for a high quality of storytelling in their games, and it’s hard to imagine an actor like Fassbender signing on if he wasn’t 100% confident in what they have planned.
With this approach, Ubisoft has also managed to attract Mad Max: Fury Road star Tom Hardy to Splinter Cell. It’s been quite some time since we received an update on that one, and while Baronnet didn’t give too much away about where things currently stand with it, he did at least confirm that the British actor is still attached.
“This is obviously attractive for intelligent players like Michael Fassbender and Tom Hardy. It is like a huge studio because it has huge brand, but it is a small structure. And it will remain like that, you do not want to become bigger. Tom Hardy was also evident on Splinter Cell. We had the same discussion and it is also committed immediately. Tom is a gamer and he loves the world of Splinter Cell. We worked a lot with him on the character.”
They’re certainly saying all the right things, and if Assassin’s Creed (which recently saw big names like Brendan Gleeson and Jeremy Irons added to the cast) turns out to be a critical and commercial hit, then superhero movies may just have a whole new genre to compete with.
