Historically, video game movies are not well received by fans, but the Assassin’s Creed franchise is all about changing history. As an interactive medium, it’s not just video game characters and stories that filmmakers adapt—it is how the game made each player feel. Since this experience is greatly varied from person to person, fan reception is not always kind.
Producing the Assassin’s Creed film is Frank Marshall, who has worked on such films as Raiders of the Lost Ark and Back To The Future. “I’m always looking for a good story,” he said during the Sony E3 press conference today. “I thought that the Assassin’s Creed universe really had all the elements that could make a great movie.”
For those not familiar with the franchise, Assassin’s Creed involves the eternal struggle between Assassins and Templars, with gameplay involving both historical and modern times. Using an interface called Animus, descendants of Assassins are kidnapped by Abstergo Industries (modern-day Templars) and forced to relive their genetic memories. While this concept remains intact for the upcoming big-screen adaptation, the writers didn’t want to “repeat history,” as it were.
“It was our goal as filmmakers to stay respectful to the DNA of the brand, and bring something new to the franchise that can be experienced in movie theaters,” said Marshall. “We have a new story, we have a new hero, dynamic supporting players and characters, we mixed a little bit of the old and the familiar up with a new element.”
He added, “It’s the multi-layered mythology that we have that comes from the game and putting you into the story. We have a real story and it has an arc that goes all the way util the end. [It’s] being able to have the same wish fulfillment as you have in the game.”
While the Assassin’s Creed movie tells an all-new story set in Ubisoft’s world of parkour and stealth, fans of the game franchise should keep an eye out for a plethora of easter eggs throughout the film, which premieres December 21.