Michael Fassbender to star in "Assassin's Creed"

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"Assassin's Creed" is one of the most popular video game franchises ever, and now it's headed for the big screen with the hottest actor in Hollywood. Variety reports that Michael Fassbender will produce and star in the film adaptation of the Ubisoft game.

Fassbender would play Desmond Miles, a man whose ancestors were expert assassins. Using some whiz-bang technology, he revisits their memories to find ancient artifacts that could change mankind forever.
I'm caught in two minds about this one. One the one hand, I love Michael Fassbender and if there's anyone who can pull off a role like this, it's him. I love the Assassin's Creed franchise (except for Revelations, ew) and it would be interesting to see it brought to the big screen. On the other, video game adaptations are never good. The highest any of them have on RT (according to Wikipedia) is 43%. So I don't know. Is there a chance this could be the exception to the rule?



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I'm too iffy on this one. On the one hand, Fassbender is a terrific actor. On the other hand, video game adaptations, like you said, just don't work. There's never been a director brave enough to just use the game as it was intended to be and not pour on all the Hollywood flash that effectively kills the adaptation.



In the Beginning...
I... don't really understand why he would play Desmond Miles. Desmond is a fairly inactive character, as the player characters (Altair, Ezio, and soon, Connor) are the real stars of the games. Maybe they'll have Fassbender pulling double duty, which would be fine, except that I can only really see him playing Altair. And he really doesn't fit Desmond at all. Dude's a young guy. He's a bartender.

Regarding video game adaptations, I also think you have to consider that the bell curve is skewed. Older adaptations like Super Mario Bros., Street Fighter, and Double Dragon are really terrible because video games didn't have the emotional depth that they do now. Newer adaptations like Resident Evil, Bloodrayne, In the Name of the King, and Alone in the Dark are terrible because studios banked on younger audiences and didn't invest in anything more than action/violence fluff (and let's not forget... three of those were directed by Uwe Boll).

Some of the gaming world's best franchises... God of War, The Legend of Zelda, Mass Effect, Gears of War, The Elder Scrolls, Halo, or even great one-offs like Red Dead Redemption... haven't been afforded the film treatment. Yet. But I think once studios realize that there's great narrative and emotional quality there to do the films right, video game adaptations will get a little more respect. Assassin's Creed is definitely a worthwhile franchise, so maybe it will be the one to get the ball rolling.

Or maybe it will just blow goats and Michael Bay will make Super Mario Bros. 2: The New Batch.



I... don't really understand why he would play Desmond Miles. Desmond is a fairly inactive character, as the player characters (Altair, Ezio, and soon, Connor) are the real stars of the games. Maybe they'll have Fassbender pulling double duty, which would be fine, except that I can only really see him playing Altair. And he really doesn't fit Desmond at all. Dude's a young guy. He's a bartender.
Yeah. Another source I read said exactly that, that Fassbender might play two roles, Desmond and either Altair, Ezio or Connor. The only thing anyone knows for certain so far though is that he's attached, and the role he will play hasn't been decided. He's also producing, which can only be good, I think, and rumour has it the production will take place outside the Hollywood system to "retain creative control", another good sign.



In the Beginning...
Very good signs indeed.

I'm gonna guess he'll play Altair. It's the first game in the franchise, so it only makes sense to start there, and I think there's probably a market for films taking place during the Crusades (Kingdom of Heaven could use some competition).

But I hope they cast a younger pup to play Desmond. For fans of the games, I think it'll be weird adjusting to Fassbender in that role, since his youth is a relatively integral part of the story.



Who else would you cast, assuming they adapt the first game? I figure Kristen Bell is the only one with the chops to reprise her role in live action, so she could come back as Lucy. As for the others, I'm not sure. I could see a Joseph Gordon-Levitt type as Desmond, and someone like Jeff Bridges as Warren. Those are pretty much the only main characters in the game, apart from Al Mualim, right? I'm stumped on him.



I haven't played a min of Assassin's Creed. Still, Fassy is allowed to play whoever he damn well wants in my book.



I haven't played a min of Assassin's Creed. Still, Fassy is allowed to play whoever he damn well wants in my book.
I picked it up a used copy, a few weeks ago, for 10 bucks....too late to get my money back? Awful.



In the Beginning...
Who else would you cast, assuming they adapt the first game? I figure Kristen Bell is the only one with the chops to reprise her role in live action, so she could come back as Lucy. As for the others, I'm not sure. I could see a Joseph Gordon-Levitt type as Desmond, and someone like Jeff Bridges as Warren. Those are pretty much the only main characters in the game, apart from Al Mualim, right? I'm stumped on him.
Yeah, Kristen Bell should be cast, and probably will. I can see Gordon-Levitt as Desmond. I can also see Garrett Hedlund. For Warren, Jeff Bridges could be good. Ben Kingsley. Somebody like that. Al Mualim is a tough cast for sure. Maybe Liam Neeson? It's a stretch.




Release Date: August 7, 2015
Studio: 20th Century Fox, Ubisoft Motion Pictures
Director: Justin Kurzel
Screenwriter: Bill Collage, Adam Cooper, Michael Lesslie
Starring: Michael Fassbender

Ubisoft Motion Pictures, the film and TV production arm of the game publishing company launched in January, is developing 3D feature films based on "Assassin's Creed," "Splinter Cell" and "Ghost Recon." The division is headed by Jean-Julien Baronnet, who said that Ubisoft Motion Pictures has been working with the games' producers and Ubisoft's marketing team to identify the DNA of each game and come up with storylines that are consistent with the company's three biggest franchises.




I foresee this as becoming another loose "adaptation" - borrowing certain core elements such as using tech to delve into ancestral memory and likely including a conspiracy/secret society angle, and not much else. I don't believe it's going to be so much of a "true" adaptation of a story involving character arcs and all that jazz, not so much as it'll be a generalized assembly of some of the most iconic features of the franchise. Hollywood DOES NOT respect games as narrative devices or the intelligence of gamers, but they do respect money, and y'all should know by now that pretty much nobody with the kind of real talent behind the camera or in front of it that you want attached to your favorite game's adaptation (to better its chances of turning out "good") will be interested in the project unless the source material is treated more as "inspiration" than "gospel".

Sorry to be a downer but the pattern is already there.
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Im interested in both these films Should be interesting to see what they do with both of them.
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I... don't really understand why he would play Desmond Miles. Desmond is a fairly inactive character, as the player characters (Altair, Ezio, and soon, Connor) are the real stars of the games. Maybe they'll have Fassbender pulling double duty, which would be fine, except that I can only really see him playing Altair..
I disagree with you completely. If you even played the games or knew the story, you would know that Desmond Miles is an integral and extremely important character in the Assassin's Creed story line. Of course he doesn't do much in the game itself, but as for Desmond himself?? He's active for the entire thing. If he wasn't kidnapped and incarcerated by Abstergo Industries to enter the Animus, we wouldn't even know what happened with Altair, Ezio or even Connor.

So, as for the upcoming movie Desmond Miles will probably be in and out of the Animus. If Michael Fassbender portrays Desmond. I don't think he'll pull double duty as Ezio and such though. Altair, Ezio and Connor may be his descendants but they are different people.

Just my two cents.



I wonder if the finished film will focus on one ancestor story (safer imo but who knows how sequels will go) or will go all-out and try to juggle multiple ancestor stories (could be epic, or a mess)...



It's a cool story and rooted in a lot of history. It'll make an entertaining movie. Honestly kind of hard for me to imagine a movie showing someone beat the pope to death with his bare hands though.

I wouldn't be surprised if they totally bastardize everything.



I don't know anything about Assassin's Creed game story or whatever but based on the reputation of movies adapted from video games, I hope it will never happen. This kind of movies are just made to please and earn money from enthusiast gamers. In my opinion, as Michael Fassbender is an actor that is starting to amaze critics and audience with his great acting capabilities, let's not put a probable scratch on his resume.



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If all goes to plan, this will be in a shared universe with Just Cause and Deus Ex.

Makes sense.



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Looks a lot better than I thought. Attaching that Kanye track reeks of too much marketing.