Assassin’s Creed ($36,493,344)

Are we on the cusp of arriving at our first genuinely good video game adaptation? While New Regency and Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed movie gained significant prestige when Michael Fassbender signed on to star in and produce the pic, it’s now been given another boost by adding an Academy Award winner to the mix. Deadline reports that Marion Cotillard has signed on to co-star with Fassbender in the film, completing the trifecta of a reunion between the stars and director of the upcoming Macbeth. Fassbender previously brought in Macbeth helmer Justin Kurzel to direct Assassin’s Creed, and adding his Macbeth co-star Cotillard to the video game pic completes this promising reunion. Moreover, Cotillard is, of course, up for the Best Actress Oscar this year for her work in the drama Two Days, One Night.

Cotillard’s role in Assassin’s Creed is being kept under wraps, but as with Fassbender’s it’s meant to span multiple films if this first movie launches a franchise. This isn’t Cotillard’s first brush with big tentpole filmmaking as she starred in The Dark Knight Rises, but she’s certainly not one to sign onto just anything, giving me hope that Assassin’s Creed could actually be really, really good.

While it’s become a bit of a curse that video game-to-movie adaptations always come up short, between this, Duncan Jones’ Warcraft, and Doug Liman’s Splinter Cell, we could be in for a windfall of quality in the next few years.

Filming on Assassin’s Creed is set to begin early this fall in anticipation of a December 21, 2016 release date. Before that time we’ll get a bit of a preview of what to expect when The Weinstein Company releases Macbeth later this year.

Desmond Miles, a bartender is captured by a large corporation and is forced into a machine, named "The Animus", allowing him to relive the memories of his ancestors -- Most of whom are Assassins -- to retrieve powerful and dangerous artifacts.

WyldeMan wrote:

Desmond Miles, a bartender is captured by a large corporation and is forced into a machine, named "The Animus", allowing him to relive the memories of his ancestors -- Most of whom are Assassins -- to retrieve powerful and dangerous artifacts.

ForeverBlu wrote:

WyldeMan wrote:

Desmond Miles, a bartender is captured by a large corporation and is forced into a machine, named "The Animus", allowing him to relive the memories of his ancestors -- Most of whom are Assassins -- to retrieve powerful and dangerous artifacts.

Is that the plot of the VG?

WyldeMan wrote:

Callum Lynch (Michael Fassbender) discovers he is a descendant of the secret Assassins society through unlocked genetic memories that allow him to relive the adventures of his ancestor, Aguilar, in 15th Century Spain. After gaining incredible knowledge and skills he’s poised to take on the oppressive Knights Templar in the present day.

ForeverBlu wrote:Huh?

WyldeMan wrote:

ForeverBlu wrote:Huh?

They butchered the plot are are going to try and cram way too much story into this, he's going to gain immense knowledge in the Anemis and then just run around present day killing the bad guys? That not how you operate in the games. That plot summary destroyed all my hopes for this, it's gonna be another Agent 47, a total flop.

ForeverBlu wrote:The brief synopsis you posted for the VG, sounds more interesting.

Why can't they simply go with that and the character's name didn't need to be changed.

UltimateMarvel wrote:I like the outfit, can't get much better than that. Getting the world right is the hard part but if a fan made movie (available in YouTube) can do it then I'm sure they can.

The plot changed completely, he shouldn't be doing much in the present day but we'll see how the trailer turns out.

Jeremy Irons and Brendan Gleeson are joining the cast of Assassin’s Creed starring opposite Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard for director Justin Kurzel, New Regency and UbiSoft Motion Pictures; Fox is distributing. The live-action film is an adaptation of the wildly popular Ubisoft video game. Irons plays Cotillard’s father. Gleeson plays Fassbender’s father. This is one heck of a lineup as the production companies are very smartly reaching beyond the already established Assassin’s Creed brand and have put together a high-quality cast.

Irons has won an Oscar (Reversal Of Fortune), an Emmy, a Tony and also a SAG and Golden Globe. His more recent film work includes The Words with Bradley Cooper, the Bille August-directed Night Train To Lisbon; the upcoming The Man Who Knew Infinity; Focus Features‘ Race based on the true story of Jesse Owens and the 1936 Olympics which bows on February 19; Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice (also for release in 2016), in which Irons plays the role of Alfred Pennyworth directed by Zack Snyder; and The Correspondence (for 2016), directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.

Gleeson last worked with Fassbender on Trespass Among Us. He also just completed production on The Free State Of Jones and Alone in Berlin. The Irish-born actor starred in the critically acclaimed Calvary last year as well as the sci-fi actioner Edge Of Tomorrow. Next up for him is Focus Features’ Suffragette with Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter and Meryl Streep which opens October 23 as well as the Ron Howard-directed In The Heart Of The Sea which opens December 11 via Warner Bros.

For Gamers who have long-suffered through subpar adaptations of their favorite video games, 2016 is shaping up to be a pretty exciting year. First we get Duncan Jones’ Warcraft, a massive labor of love that seeks to honor one of the most popular MMPORG of all time. Then comes Assassin’s Creed, the film adaptation of Ubisoft’s massively popular adventure game, which has locked down an impressive list of prestige talent.

Michael Fassbender, one of the most exciting actors on the market, leads the film, which reunites him with his Macbeth director Justin Kurzel (Snowtown) and co-star Marion Cotillard. Just last week, Jeremy Irons and Brendan Gleeson boarded the picture. That is a lot of fantastically talented people on a project that just as easily could have been the next sub-par cash grab. Assassin’s Creed only just started filming, but it’s hard not to get your hopes up.

In an illuminating interview with Premiere (via /Film), Jean-Julien Baronnet, the CEO of Ubisoft Motion Pictures spoke about the unique approach they’re taking to video game adaptations.

For one thing, they’re referencing benchmark properties like Bladerunner and Batman Begins. But, more unusual, they’re starting with actors — great actors — a technique they employed in locking down Tom Hardy for Splinter Cell and Fassbender for Assasin’s Creed. (Heads up, these quotes are all google-translated, so they’re mildly mangled at points.)

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Usually in Hollywood, when you develop a big film, you start with a script or studio …We did not do that. We said: “For each film, what is the first decision that we have to take?” In Assassin’s Creed, it was obvious that the first decision was the choice of the actor. Who is behind the assassin, who will personify [him]? In Splinter Cell, the same thing, [who] is going to be Sam Fisher? The obsession that we had was to find actors among the best, if not the best.

But how do you land A-list actors without a script? Well, Ubisoft is taking a very clever approach by offering their leading men a heap of creative control, attracting them not only to the project, but the promise of building a film (and let’s be real, likely a franchise) in a way that suits them.

[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.

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Of course this all makes sense, and it’s how someone like Kurzel, who has so far directed bleak, hard dramas, ends up at the helm of a major franchise starter — because Fassbender has enough say in the project to pull him in after their collaboration on Macbeth (along with Cotillard).

Barronett also spoke about how this approach helped land Hardy for Splinter Cell.

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.

Finally Barronett gave some insight into the inner-workings of Ubisoft’s film division, which he says is approaching large-scale projects with an independent film mentality; including an aim to tackle important, timely messages within the constructs of the property.

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Our approach is to remain in control of the development, so to finance it 100%. We choose writers who are not necessarily stars but people who have understood the universe. And as long as the script is not level, it will not launch. It has also worked very closely with New Regency for Assassin’s Creed. We needed them for their expertise. There was a kind of triptych between the actor, the studio and us. It is the combination of the three who built this scenario. With arbitration returning us as we fund. The beauty of being a small structure is that no contingencies that lead us to release films in greenlighter quickly. It leaves time to time to arrive at what it takes. Four years of development for Assassin!

Leave it to the French, with their deep love of cinema, to treat a tentpole film like an indie! I like it. It’s a fresh approach that’s leading to some really exciting collaborations. The folks at Ubisoft understand that video game adaptations have a history of disappointment and they’re making bold choices to try to prevent repeating that history.

Before it was just a dream, but now...it's a reality. As production gets started for the upcoming video game film "Assassin's Creed," the first image to come from the set has finally been released. The image comes from inside Abstergo, a multimedia conglomerate that exists solely in the Assassin's Creed universe. They are run by a character named Alan Rikkin, who is actually the leader of the templar order in the present.

It's safe to assume that the company will factor into the movie the same way it does in the video games: as the antagonist. Hopefully more images will come out from the set of the film as they will eventually have to get into the more interesting aspects of things. That's right, I'm talking about bales of hay...

"Assassin's Creed" will come out on December 21st, 2016. It will star Marion Cotillard, Michael Fassbender, Ariane Labed, and Michael K. Williams.

ForeverBlu wrote:Costume party?

ForeverBlu wrote:That second pic.

The AC protagonist, doesn't he stayed hooded in the VG ?

Rusty Cunt wrote:This movie doesn't seem completely fucking retarded to anyone else?

I so wish Marion Cotillard had the good sense to turn it down.

Rusty Cunt wrote:This movie doesn't seem completely fucking retarded to anyone else?

I so wish Marion Cotillard had the good sense to turn it down.

WyldeMan wrote:

Rusty Cunt wrote:This movie doesn't seem completely fucking retarded to anyone else?

I so wish Marion Cotillard had the good sense to turn it down.

When have they ever made a video game film that wasn't an atrocious pile of crap?

The Assassin's Creed movie finished its principal photography last month, and now Michael Fassbender can finally talk about the movie. He chatted with Empire Magazine briefly about the film, not due out until the end of the year. Fassbender seems he's most excited about the look and feel of the film, one that will take place in both the past in the 15th Century and the modern day, with the actor playing both roles.

"There's very little green screen in this, which is highly unusual in these films," he said. They took filming to on-location sets in Spain and Malta, alongside London, and that meant stunts that will mirror the amazing feats seen in the videogame franchise from Ubisoft.

"We have stunt guys jumping across buildings in Valletta," in Malta, he explained. The signature motion from the games, though, is the "leap of faith," where with an eagle cry, the assassin jumps from a tall building, usually into a barrel of straw. Well, we'll see that, too.

"We've got Damian Walters doing a 120-foot leap of faith, without any rope, into a bag," he said. "It's pretty incredible to see."

The movie hopes to break the video-game adaptation curse, where, despite the incredible success of other similar franchises from novels and comic books in theaters, video games have never taken a similar hold. Fassbender looks at the use of the genetic memories that link his two characters and the device they use to unlock those to allow him to experience his ancestor's life as something familiar to scifi fans in general, if not video game players.

"I've always though about The Matrix when we've approached this," he said. In the seminal film, people are jacked into an elaborate computer-generated world, living a fake life, so it's a fair comparison to draw.

Assassin's Creed hits theaters December 21, 2016.

ForeverBlu wrote:Fassy's window to A-List stardom is closing fast.

It this one flops....

The adaptation of the blockbuster video game Assassin’s Creed from New Regency isn’t set to bow until December, but The Tracking Board has learned that the company is officially underway with plans for the sequel, ASSASSIN’S CREED 2. With star Michael Fassbender on board, the stage is set for a new action-adventure franchise starring the two-time Academy Award nominee.

The sequel sees familiar names from the yet-to-be-released title’s production team, with Jean-Julien Baronnet producing for Ubisoft Motion Pictures, Frank Marshall producing through his Kennedy-Marshall Company, while Fassbender and Conor McCaughan will produce through their DMC Films shingle. Matt Phelps will oversee for Ubisoft, while Pam Abdy will oversee for New Regency.

Director Justin Kurzel’s forthcoming action-adventure story stars Fassbender and Marion Cotillard – the three of whom worked together previously on last year’s critically acclaimed MacBeth. Fassbender plays Callum Lynch, a man who discovers that he’s the descendant of a secretive society of deadly assassins, who are at war with the Knights Templar. Through a machine, Lynch becomes able to tap into the memories of his ancestor Aguilar, an assassin in 15th century Spain. Commanding his ancestor’s incredible skills, ability, and knowledge, Lynch sets forth to take on the Knights Templar in the present.

The film takes its name from the mega-popular Ubisoft video game series, though the storyline involving Lynch/Aguilar was created specifically for the film. The movie won’t be a retelling of games’ stories, but will exist in the same world.

That the studio is already laying the groundwork for the sequel is hardly surprising, given the international appeal of both the game and its star, Fassbender. But skeptics of video game-based films may interpret this move as a sign of confidence from those involved that, unlike previous attempts to bring popular video game properties to the big screen, Assassin’s Creed could not only work – but thrive. The hefty $125 million budget, which includes financing from co-financiers like Alpha Pictures International and Brett Ratner’s RatPac Entertainment, is all the more reason to get started on a sequel, as Regency Enterprises, distributor 20th Century Fox and the bevy of investors involved will want to pounce any momentum that the film finds at the box office.

The mostly positive reactions to the first images of Fassbender as the Lynch/Aguilar character may have further fueled producers to initiate plans for a sequel. Previous attempts to launch franchises based on Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia, and Silent Hill have yielded lackluster results, to say the least, but as the pictures of Fassbender spread across social media, they quickly prompted some to announce that 2016 could be the year that video game adaptations break their losing streak – the latest trailer for World of Warcraft from Duncan Jones has somewhat quelled that hopeful spirit.

Breaking news: In an exclusive report from The Wrap, 20th Century Fox will not be showcasing any of their upcoming movie releases in the Hall H presentations at San Diego Comic-Con this year. The studio feels it cannot prevent the piracy of custom trailers and exclusive footage routinely screened for fans in attendance. The studio was reportedly going to show glimpses of Assassins Creed, the Michael Fassbender video game adaptation that wowed exhibitors at this year’s CinemaCon and an early first look at Hugh Jackman‘s Wolverine 3.

ForeverBlu wrote:RME.

UltimateMarvel wrote:Cool! I guess that's the Animus or the movie's version. Or is he getting the needle? lol!

I know it's Fassbender but if we've learned anything from video game to movie adaptation, there is a good chance this is going to suck but I'm hoping it turns out great. Looking forward to a trailer.