It is being reported today that Michael Fassbender and his fledgling production company DMC will be producing a film version of the hugely popular Assassins Creed video franchise for him to star in. A few things grab me when I think about this:
1) Fassbender is one of the best actors working today. Look at his filmography. The films he is in are either great, or his role is. Shame was the single best acting performance of last year in my opinion.
2) I think they might be taking this film seriously.
I like both of those things. Nothing upsets me more than the fact that people just can’t seem to get videogame films right. In my opinion, they should be just as easy to make as comic book movies, but for some reason they arent and it makes no sense. Assassins Creed, Uncharted, Mass Effect, Halo etc etc. seem to be franchises that could spit out a movie that is actually good and fun every summer. The Resident Evil films are an exercise in exactly how NOT to make these films, but this initial piece of news about Assassins Creed makes me think they might be shooting to make the Blade or X-Men 1 of video games. By that I mean, make a film that is good and commercially viable. As long as Ubisoft works closely to make sure they just don’t rape the game, it can work. Game companies should look to Marvel over the last 4 years as the method by which they get these films out.
I’ve got my fingers crossed for this one.