I’m playing through Assassin’s Creed III in my downtime and, while I’m not as in love with it as I was the second entry, it’s still a very competent and entertaining game if you can make peace with the less-than-reliable controls. While the franchise’s life in gaming is bright, its film future has been much more ambiguous.
We’ve known since July that Michael Fassbender is on tap to star and produce the first entry in what developer Ubisoft and studio UMP hope will become a long and lucrative franchise. Thing is, I don’t really see Fassbender as the series’ main character Desmond Miles, who’s something of an early 30s shlub. But he does have the intensity to pull off the original game’s Desmond-avatar Altaïr ibn-La’Ahad, an assassin during the Third Crusade.
This is a big project and one that is taking time getting off the ground; right now we know the star and little else – like a director or release date. Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz about the franchise, Ubisoft’s chief sales and marketing officer Geoffroy Sardin may have given away the film’s timetable:
“Another thing that is very important for the lifecycle is the transmedia offer. All the figurines, the books, the publishing, and we have a movie in the next coming year. So it’s not only about games, we are talking about a global brand, and this is the life cycle management we want to set up now.”
Can we really expect an Assassin’s Creed movie in 2013? I’m suspicious, especially with so little announced about the film. Fassbender’s involvement is a great start, but everything I’ve heard hints that pre-production isn’t as far along as that release window would indicate. Whatever team is in place right now, I hope they realize the shoddy track record videogame adaptations have in Hollywood and take their time. The franchise’s potential warrants it.
Source: IGN