Ubisoft Making Assassin's Creed, Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell Movies

Greg Tito

PR for Dungeons & Dragons
Sep 29, 2005
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Ubisoft Making Assassin's Creed, Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell Movies



The French videogame publisher says it will produce its own films based on its most lucrative game franchises.

Everyone knows that movies made from videogame properties tend to suck (thanks Uwe Boll!) but Ubisoft refuses to let that get in the way of global domination. Successful handling of a game's brand can be done in a film - think Prince of Persia with Jake Gyllenhaal - and Ubisoft wants to make sure that stays true for its most important franchises. Earlier this year, the French publisher announced that it was creating a movie production division [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/109725-Ubisoft-Launches-a-Movie-Studio] unimaginatively called Ubisoft Motion Pictures and the new CEO Jean-Julien Baronnet confirmed to Variety that he is working on film adaptations for three major franchises - Assassin's Creed, Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell - which have sold a combined 67 million copies worldwide. The new group is keen on getting help from American studios and talent, but Ubisoft wants to keep a tight rein on the productions.

"We want to keep ownership, retain control over the film content, and we're open to work with studios on the development of our projects, and eventually collaborate on the pre-casting, pre-budget and script," Baronnet said.

The timetable isn't set in stone, but Baronnet hopes to begin production as early as 2012. "We will have a script ready by the end of the year," he said. Of course, we don't know which film he's talking about having a script for, but that's just quibbling.

Ubisoft's marketing guy also clarified that the game publisher isn't really interested in making movies full time, they just want to make sure the adaptations live up to the games. "Our strategy is not to diversify but to bolster the appeal of our franchises - that's why we want to make sure our films will reflect the brands accurately and consolidate our fan base while expanding beyond the games' primary target audience," Jean de Rivieres said.

I respect Ubisoft for wanting to do their movies right. Too many times game companies have fallen into the trap of signing away movie rights without having any creative control or a way to back out if the movie just plain sucks. It would really hurt Ubisoft if, say, an Assassin's Creed movie came out starring The Rock and Andrew Dice Clay. By starting its own executive branch to handle these negotiations, Ubisoft can stick with the business of making games.

Source: Variety [http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118037076]

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DustyDrB

Made of ticky tacky
Jan 19, 2010
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Assassin's Creed could make a great movie. Though I'm thinking of the Ezio stuff. I really don't care about the Desmond story. Altair could be cool if they gave him just a little personality.
 

ZeroMachine

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Oct 11, 2008
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I don't see how they could mess up the Splinter Cell movie, and I don't really care for Ghost Recon...

... but if they fuck up Assassin's Creed, I shall be peeved.
DustyDrB said:
Assassin's Creed could make a great movie. Though I'm thinking of the Ezio stuff. I really don't care about the Desmond story. Altair could be cool if they gave him just a little personality.
Why does no one care for Desmond's story? The future conspiracy is my favorite part of the entire story, and I seem to be alone on that :(
 

ImprovizoR

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Dec 6, 2009
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Assassin's Creed movie? Awesome. I just hope they do a better job than that Prince of Persia movie with the story.
That whole "the world will end if yo use the dagger" thing was an unnecessary subplot cause everyone knew they were gonna use it anyway and the evil uncle was a good enough motivator to drive the whole story.

Desmond has to be in AC movie, and Ezio and Altair. They can definitely make a 3 hour long movie out of it and also make it at least a trilogy. There's a lot of material and if handed right it could be the next big thing since LoTR. Not likely, but possible if they don't fuck around with it.
 

Inferno_622

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May 28, 2010
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Can't have a Splinter Cell film without Ironside's voice, and I'm not sure he'd be able to act a live action Sam.
 

DustyDrB

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Jan 19, 2010
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ZeroMachine said:
I don't see how they could mess up the Splinter Cell movie, and I don't really care for Ghost Recon...

... but if they fuck up Assassin's Creed, I shall be peeved.
DustyDrB said:
Assassin's Creed could make a great movie. Though I'm thinking of the Ezio stuff. I really don't care about the Desmond story. Altair could be cool if they gave him just a little personality.
Why does no one care for Desmond's story? The future conspiracy is my favorite part of the entire story, and I seem to be alone on that :(
Because the characters are boring. The premise has potential, but Viddic has been the only interesting present-day character. And he's only interesting in the "Well, that guy is a tool" kind of way.
 

Waaghpowa

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Apr 13, 2010
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Ok, so Assassin's Creed might end up being an awesome sci fi movie. Splinter Cell, maybe a decent "plausible" James Bondish film. Ghost Recon, eh...
 

ZeroMachine

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DustyDrB said:
ZeroMachine said:
I don't see how they could mess up the Splinter Cell movie, and I don't really care for Ghost Recon...

... but if they fuck up Assassin's Creed, I shall be peeved.
DustyDrB said:
Assassin's Creed could make a great movie. Though I'm thinking of the Ezio stuff. I really don't care about the Desmond story. Altair could be cool if they gave him just a little personality.
Why does no one care for Desmond's story? The future conspiracy is my favorite part of the entire story, and I seem to be alone on that :(
Because the characters are boring. The premise has potential, but Viddic has been the only interesting present-day character. And he's only interesting in the "Well, that guy is a tool" kind of way.
I guess so. I do tend to be lenient with characters sometimes.
 

Tdc2182

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May 21, 2009
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Inferno_622 said:
Can't have a Splinter Cell film without Ironside's voice, and I'm not sure he'd be able to act a live action Sam.
Have him dub every character.

Even the female ones.

OT: Yeah, there was supposedly suppose to be a Splinter Cell movie in 2010.
 

redisforever

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Oct 5, 2009
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Finally, they can make the Splinter Cell movie that was announced way back in, what was it, I think 2005, in Chaos Theory. There was a teaser trailer in the game. Supposedly, it was to be distributed by Paramount.
 

nlaq

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May 16, 2011
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Sober Thal said:
Hell yeah. Just make the new Assassins Creed movie better than the last one they made.
I personally liked that one. Fairly impressive for a studio just getting into film making, and I certainly appreciated how they were able to expand a story players were already familiar with (and interested in) - without it feeling... "wrong" (for lack of a better word).

I would really like to see them expand on the characters that interact with Ezio, but not Ezio himself. I always get a strange feeling when I watch a movie that features a game character I played as the main... I would rather them leave Ezio for the games.
 

DevilWolf47

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Nov 29, 2010
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A Splinter Cell movie? Where have i heard that before...
...oh yeah... THERE WAS A TRAILER IN CHAOS THEORY!

Anyway, i'm dubious. Even if Ubisoft has potential, i'm just not ready to accept that video game movies are anything more than brutal misuse of intellectual property. Maybe one of them will convince me otherwise. And maybe George Lucas will stop being such a fucking idiot and hand over the intellectual rights to his franchise over to someone who actually knows how to write. All of these events are possible, but highly unlikely.
 

gundamrx101

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Nov 19, 2010
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DustyDrB said:
Altair could be cool if they gave him just a little personality.
Right, a muslim assassin in the 1100's with a personality. Whatever characteristics he had were probably beaten out of him as a child as he was born into the order and trained.

OT: I look forward to an Assassin's Creed movie, as the prequel short to 2 was amazing. It makes me smile just to picture what they could do with a bigger budget.
 

Vrach

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Jun 17, 2010
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Could be good... could be awful. Will really have to see, but very much doubt something absolutely brilliant is coming out of this tbh :\
 

Nurb

Cynical bastard
Dec 9, 2008
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Nobody ever learns with video game movies.

Splinter cell will be a 24 knock-off and ghost recon's going to be a crappy modern Saving Private Ryan or Platoon