One or more Assassin's Creed games a year plus Assassin's Creed comics, Assassin's Creed novels and Assassin's Creed animated shorts are not enough for Ubisoft, which remains anxious to create the thing that all great video games need: an official Hollywood-made movie.
The latest incremental news about the movie is that Ubisoft is partnering with New Regency to make the film, still scheduled for 2014 with Michael Fassbender starring.
Variety explains the important parts:
Although financial terms were not disclosed, New Regency will finance part of the pic's production — participation Ubisoft was seeking so it doesn't have to shoulder much of the risk as it ventures into filmmaking.
"We want to be sure that we're not taking too much of a risk but that we're still very involved on the creative side," [Ubisoft Motion Pictures CEO Jean-Julien] Baronnet said.
While many game-to-film adaptations are strictly licensing pacts, with the gamemaker having little say in how the film is developed, Ubisoft is taking a more hands-on approach with "Assassin's Creed."
In addition to preserving elements of the game that make up its DNA, like the design of its characters and historical elements, it hopes to tie in the release of a film with a new game launch.
"We don't want to make games just for the sake of movies," Baronnet said. "We want to make them in concert with the games."
... all of which means that maybe this movie won't be the debacle that Ubisoft's Disney's Prince of Persia was? Nor Nintendo's Super Mario Bros.? Nor Microsoft's ill-fated Halo? Nor that Doom movie. Nor... etc, etc.
New Regency, Fox partner on Ubisoft's 'Assassin's Creed' [Variety]