With video games currently grossing figures comparable with Hollywood movies it comes as no surprise that New Regency has made a deal to finance and distribute Assassin’s Creed, a screen adaptation of the hugely successful Ubisoft video game franchise which has already sold 37 million copies to date. Michael Fassbender (Prometheus) has already signed on to produce and star in the big screen adaptation and Regency CEO Brad Weston had the following to say about bagging the in-demand actor: “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. 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.”
With previous video game adaptations such as Prince of Persia, Street Fighter and Doom not exactly setting the box office alight, it will be interesting to see how Assassin’s Creed develops with a genuine A-List actor in Fassbender attached.
