The Assassin's Creed film moved a step closer to becoming a reality today, with Ubisoft teaming up with film studio New Regency to make the forthcoming video game adaptation, which is set to star Michael Fassbender.
According to Deadline, New Regency will finance and distribute the movie, while the Ubisoft Motion Picture division "will have strong creative input as the project moves into the script stage."
"This is the perfect intersection of what we have been trying to do, and that is to work with top quality talent like Michael Fassbender," explained Regency CEO Brad Weston. "We see this as our first big commercial action franchise property. Fassbender just did 12 Years A Slave with us, and he is as good an actor as there is right now. The storyline we are pursuing has a great narrative and because Ubisoft's games are so character and story driven, Assassin's Creed lends itself perfectly to our goal to re-brand Regency as a filmmaker driven company."
"Ubisoft chose to partner with New Regency because they are a talent- and filmmaker-driven company, with the same independent and creative mindset that we have at Ubisoft Motion Pictures," UMP CEO Jean-Julien Baronnet added. "Bringing aboard New Regency's renowned production and distribution expertise while maintaining our own creative and financial flexibility ensures that Assassin's Creed will be a high-quality film that respects the lore and fans of the video game franchise."
And according to Variety, in addition to preserving elements of the game that make up its DNA – like the design of its characters and historical elements – Ubisoft hopes to tie the release of a film in with a new game launch.