Ah, the video game-to-film adaptation. A testing ground for filmmakers and studios alike,
its history riddled with more expensive failures than tried-a-true success stories. Super Marios
Bros., Alone in the Dark, Street Fighter, House of the Dead, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon
Siege Tale, Bloodrayne, Hitman, Max Payne… the list goes on, with this particular genre
of adaptation constantly littering the bottom of Rotten Tomatoes’ aggregate ranking system.
That’s not to say there aren’t successes; financially, critically, or simply beloved
by a vocal minority of fans. Tomb Raider, Mortal Kombat, Pokemon: Detective Pikachu
and the Resident Evil franchise have brought in either buckets of cash and several sequels,
or are at least remembered for their iconic theme tunes. (Looking at you, Mortal Kombat).
The video game adaps keep on coming, with a Sonic the Hedgehog sequel about to drop, as
well as Uncharted recently performing decently in the first half of 2022.
Regardless of the success rate of these video game adaptations,
they’re established Intellectual Property - and Lord knows Hollywood loves recognizable IP.
This led to a long-awaited adaptation of Ubisoft’s popular Assassin’s Creed game franchise
into a hundred-million-dollar-plus adaptation back in 2016, with none other than Magneto
himself - Michael Fassbender - in the dual lead roles. It was a surprising development when the
movie was announced as being in production, with Fassbender attached as producer and star,
in 2012 and in 2013 the movie was slated to take a bow Memorial Day, 2015.
Why then was Assassin’s Creed not released until December 2016? Why was the 125-million-dollar
movie with a star-studded cast given a drubbing by critics, and why did it fail to light the domestic
box office on fire? Take a leap of faith with JoBlo as we find out WTF happened to this movie.
Ubisoft’s iconic - and ongoing - game series Assassin’s Creed
has sold a whopping 155 million units since the first game debuted in 2007,
and has spawned 12 core titles in addition to several spinoffs.
Initially conceived as a new installment of the perennial Prince of Persia franchise,
to be created by the core Persia team, ahead of the launch of the next generation of consoles;
which, at the time, were the PS3 and X-Box 360. With a desire for a POV character that wasn’t just
“someone that is waiting to be a king”, and with a ton of research into secret societies of the past,
the idea was formulated to center the game around a secret society of assassins.
Ubisoft top brass balked at the idea of having a Prince of Persia game without the Prince as
a lead character, so the project was encouraged to become brand-new IP.
Creative Director Patrice Désilets formed the new idea around the inspiration provided by a
book called Alamut, and Hassan-i-Sabbah, a Muslim missionary in the 11th century
who founded the Asasiyun [pr. Hash-ash-in] - later known simply as “the assassins”.
Additional elements were introduced to the story, relating to the Assassins and their
long-running feud with the Knights Templar, throughout battles fought across the Crusades.
A near-future setting was implemented for the game’s framework, to explain the ability to die
and come back in the plot of the game. Désilets had seen a TV show about DNA being passed down
through generations, and concocted a story set in the near-future which revolves around a character
going into a device called the “Animus” and engaging with the memories of a long-dead ancestor
in order to find some information that will save the world in their present. It’s an ingenious
device, and positions the story as sci-fi rather than a straight-up historical epic.
The game obviously played like gangbusters when it debuted in ‘07, as gamers were entranced by
not only playing as parkour-enthusiast Altaïr but also the near-future intrigue as the Assassins
and Templars continue their fight into the 21st Century. The game pioneered free-running physics
and crowd scenes, and has been pumping out new versions in different time periods ever since.
Cut to 2011, where Sony entered final negotiations to make the film with Ubisoft’s new shingle,
Ubisoft Motion Pictures, the French company determined to finance co-productions
allowing their precious IP to be turned into smash-hit feature films.
In 2012, Fassbender came aboard with his banner DMC Film, but by October 2012, Ubisoft had ditched
Sony in order to have more creative control over the project, and were now teaming with
New Regency and Fox to produce and distribute the movie. New Regency president and CEO Brad
Weston had enjoyed working with Fassbender on 12 Years a Slave and was eager to do so again.
Things get a little chaotic behind the scenes in the run-up to the movie’s production,
but stick with me here:
In January 2013,
hit British playwright Michael Lesslie was hired to write the screenplay for Assassin’s Creed.
Come June of the same year, legendary producer Frank Marshall signs onto assist in producing
alongside Fassbender et al; his Indiana Jones pedigree making him an obvious candidate.
In June, the release date for Assassin’s Creed was pushed back to June 19th, 2015.
By July of 2013, writer Scott Frank - of Minority Report and The Wolverine
fame - reveals he’s been hired to do rewrites on Lesslie’s script.
Rewrites by other writers are nothing new in the film industry,
and with Frank’s resume there was little cause for alarm. Being no stranger to adaptations, Frank had
previously been nominated for an Oscar for Out of Sight, and was quoted as loving the different
set of challenges that come with adapting a videogame - something he had never done before.
In January 2014, an executive producer’s LinkedIn profile suggested filming was
to begin in August of the same year. Around the same time, rumors were flying around suggesting
Daniel Espinosa - the director responsible for Safe House and this year’s Morbius - was
set to take a chair on set with his name and title on the back. This rumor later
turned out to either be erroneous, or a deal with Espinosa was never closed.
Later, in April 2014, the producers were clearly still not happy with the script,
as writing duo Adam Cooper and Bill Collage were hired for yet another rewrite. A strange choice,
considering the pair were perhaps best known for comedies Tower Heist and
Acceptance at that point, although word had it they had done an early draft on Exodus: Gods and
Kings for Ridley Scott which was well-received - making more sense, considering Assassin’s
Creed is a halfway-swords-and- sandals period piece as well. Suddenly, that August production
start date isn’t looking so feasible - with the script being rewritten just four months prior.
Things start heating up quickly though, as within the month, Fassbender’s collaborator
on his moody Macbeth adaptation - Justin Kurzel - signs on to direct. Clearly the two enjoyed
their time together on Macbeth, and were game to continue onward with Assassin’s Creed.
BUMPER
All is mostly quiet until February 2015, when Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot [pr. E-vez Gee-ya-moe]
suddenly confirms that Assassin’s Creed is in production having been given a greenlight
from New Regency. The June 2015 release date is obviously out the window by this point,
with Guillemot confirming that the film is now slated for a December 2016 drop.
Very shortly afterward - like, the next day - Deadline announced that Marion Cotillard had
also signed on to star in the film, prompting a reunion with her Macbeth co-star Fassbender
and their director, Justin Kurzel. Macbeth by that point had to be released, but Cotillard’s
signing-on to Assassin’s Creed no doubt increased confidence in their prior project, and vice versa.
Having met on the set of The Light Between Oceans in 2014, Fassbender may or may not have
been carrying on a relationship with Alicia Vikander - the couple didn’t confirm their
relationship until 2017. Regardless, Vikander was circling a role in Assassin’s Creed in May 2015,
no doubt courted and/or encouraged by Fassbender to do so,
but by June she had made a decision to star in the fifth Jason Bourne movie instead. Thankfully,
their relationship didn’t sour due to that choice, and the pair are now married with a baby.
The role earmarked for Vikander instead went to Greek-born French actress and director Ariane
Labed, who signed on in late June. In early July, the late, great Michael K. Williams
signs on for a role which sources supposedly teased had a “major stake” in the franchise.
The following month, Yahoo! Movies (remember them?) dropped the first image of Michael
Fassbender dressed in the recognizable garb of an assassin from the franchise,
although obviously tweaked for the time period, and the characters’ big-screen visualization.
This was the first real, confirmed inkling that this production was well and truly underway,
other than talk and rumor. The image drop also came with it a synopsis, giving fans
their first taste of the story, which appeared to hew closely to the plot of the first game;
“Through a revolutionary technology that unlocks his genetic memories, Callum Lynch (Michael
Fassbender) experiences the adventures of his ancestor, Aguilar, in 15th Century Spain. Callum
discovers he is descended from a mysterious secret society, the Assassins, and amasses incredible
knowledge and skills to take on the oppressive and powerful Templar organization in the present day.”
While some fans may have been distressed to discover they were not getting Fassbender as
Altaïr, Ezio, or any other recognizable characters from the franchise,
Ubisoft’s Head of Assassin’s Creed Content - Aymar Azaïzia - confirmed that the movie would
share the same universe as the games, with the opportunity to see some familiar faces.
Further to that point, Jeremy Irons was brought onto the cast, playing Dr. Alan Rikkin - a
villainous character from the game series. Dr. Rikkin is the CEO of Abstergo Industries,
an arm of the Templar Order, who are determined to retrieve the “Apple of Eden”;
a device that supposedly can inhibit God-given free will.
Rikkin’s daughter, Dr. Sofia Rikkin, is played by Marion Cotillard, and together they kidnap Callum
from his scheduled execution in order to plug him into the Animus and retrieve the genetic memories
of his ancestor, Aguilar - a 15th century Assassin determined to protect the Apple from the Templar.
Shooting took place in between August 2015 and January 2016, a fairly lengthy shoot as one would
expect for a 125 million dollar movie. Brendan Gleeson also added to the cast as Callum’s father
- with his real-life son Brian Gleeson playing a younger version of the character in flashback.
Shooting locations included Spain, Malta and the UK - in London, as well the famed 007 soundstage
at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire [pr. Bucking-’em-sheer]. Adam Arkapaw served as
the film’s cinematographer; another longtime collaborator of Kurzel’s, dating back to his grim
breakout crime movie, Snowtown in 2011. While Arkapaw brought many sweeping and beautiful
shots to the film, his palette was arguably tainted by a VFX “dust” effect that perpetuates
through much of the movie, especially in the flashbacks to 15th Century Spain.
By all indications, the shoot went smoothly, even going as far to accomplish a historic stunt;
replicating the signature “Leap of Faith” move from the videogames, stunt performer Damien
Walters conducted a 125-foot freefall, quoted as being “one of the highest freefalls performed
by a stuntman in almost 35 years". While the behind-the-scenes video shows impressive footage
of the stunt [see Source 20 - Dan], the end result on film is sadly less impressive, as the blurry
VFX insert of the Spanish city added in post makes the final product look like… well, a videogame.
In post-production, Kurzel also brought on his brother Jed to score the movie,
naturally another frequent colleague. Jed Kurzel is a great composer, having provided
exemplary work on the likes of Alien: Covenant and Slow West (another Fassbender joint).
The first trailer for Assassin’s Creed dropped in May 2016, and gave fans - diehard and
casual alike - their first glimpse at a moving look and feel for the movie. The trailer was
set to Kanye West’s I Am a God - a controversial choice for some, feeling that the song was out of
place, while others might feel that the intro of the song is a perfect tonal match for the scenes
of Aguilar defying the Templar Grand Master while chained to a stake, about to be burned.
The trailer encapsulated most of what the final, finished movie was to center around;
Callum kidnapped by Abstergo, and forced to live his ancestor’s high-fallutin’
parkour antics during the Spanish Inquisition. It’s safe to say that
the reception to the trailer was a mixture of skepticism and excitement.
After four writers, shifting release dates, a battle between studios, an ever-expanding team
of producers, a lengthy shoot and a game studio that wanted as much creative control as possible,
Assassin’s Creed finally took a bow in December 2016.
The initial box office performance was tepid, amounting to 10.3 million dollars domestic. This
might have been due to the early reviews, with Rotten Tomatoes summing it up as a
“joylessly overplotted slog”. Famed critic Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian didn’t pull his punches,
announcing loudly that “getting Fassbender to slap a coat of Dulux on the wall of his
hi-tech prison cell and monitoring the progressive moisture-loss would be more exciting.” In addition
to his one-star review, this kind of assessment is a little harsh, as the movie still excels in some
of its action scenes and the all-star cast do as much as possible with the cryptic script they had.
Scott Wampler of Birth.Movies.Death was a little kinder,
saying that Assassin’s Creed is not “the top-to-bottom disaster”
that many were claiming. Regardless, he still called it “dour and repetitive”.
Our own Chris Bumbray, reviewing the movie for JoBlo, graded it a fair 5 out of 10,
calling it “among the year’s biggest disappointments”. He mentioned accurately
that while Fassbender and Kurzel were clearly aiming for a sequel with the film’s denouement,
where Callum embraces his assassin-family-legacy to protect the Apple of Eden with his newfound
allies, a follow-up was unlikely unless audiences turned up in droves. Spoiler alert: they didn’t.
Another JoBlo contributor, Alex Maidy, would later stick up for the film in our column,
The UnPopular Opinion, calling Assassin’s Creed “breathtaking”
and one of the “best directed and best acted blockbusters” in recent memory.
After a worldwide box office take of 240 million greenbacks,
The Hollywood Reporter estimated that the film would lose the studios involved
75 to 100 million dollars after expenses like marketing and box office rental, although that
figure might be a little high considering their estimation came before the movie finished its run.
Assassin’s Creed currently sits with a dismal 18% aggregate rating from critics on
Rotten T, Tomatoes, although audiences were apparently less rough on the video
game adap - the audience score has a slightly-higher average of 42%.
Justin Kurzel tried admirably to infuse Assassin’s Creed with as much realism as possible,
opting for as many physical stunts and on-location shooting as possible; a murky
VFX palette lets him down quite a bit, especially in the scenes set during the Spanish Inquisition.
There’s an interesting subplot with the other present-day descendants of the assassins,
although we don’t get enough time with actors Michael K. Williams,
Callum Turner and Michelle H. Lin to get a grasp of their characters or whom they’re descended
from. Fassbender’s character turns from skeptic to true believer across a mostly nonverbal,
stoic inner journey, which makes the arc hard for audiences to connect with.
The film’s ‘MacGuffin’ - the Apple of Eden - is far too vague of a prize for either the
Assassins or the Templars. Audiences are only told that it can remove free will,
but without being told exactly how, it ends up feeling like an empty
threat. It’s a shame that none of the four screenwriters could figure that one out.
Assassin’s Creed, ultimately, was a brave and costly exercise in adapting one of the most
popular video game series ever, and was perhaps executed with a little too much seriousness and
not enough entertainment. Perhaps Kurzel was the wrong choice for director; perhaps the screenplay
wasn’t quite ready after the revolving door of writers and persistent delays.
While Kurzel had high hopes and plans for a sequel - he mentioned to a French outlet
that he would consider utilizing a 1950s Cold War setting - this would never come to pass.
While two sequels were planned by New Regency, in the wake of Disney’s acquisition of Fox and their
inherited debt from that studio’s film department, all Assassin’s Creed sequels were canceled.
Looking back, Michael Fassbender mused that “I would make it more entertaining, that’s really
the main note. The feeling of the film, I think it took itself too seriously and I would get to
the action a lot quicker. I think there’s three beginnings of the film, which is a mistake.”
While Assassin’s Creed may have had an overly-weighty tone, with a slow-burn plot,
time might be kinder to this movie, that dared to take a video game adaptation so seriously.
What did you think of Assassin’s Creed? Were fans and critics
too harsh in December of 2016? Let us know in the comments below!