Michael Fassbender To Star In Assassin’s Creed Movie

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

X-Men: First Class and Prometheus star Michael Fassbender is set to star in and co-produce a movie adaptation of gaming phenomenon Assassin’s Creed, reports Variety.

Assassin’s Creed is Ubisoft’s biggest franchise, selling over 30 million units since 2007 over the course of four games so far. The fifth game, Assassin’s Creed III (we’ll deal with the numbering system in a minute), which is set during the American Revolution, is due out in October.

“Michael Fassbender was our first choice to play the franchise’s iconic hooded hero,” said Jean-Julien Baronnet, CEO of Paris-based Ubisoft Motion Pictures (UMP). “Michael (Fassbender) is an extremely smart, talented, versatile and committed actor.”

Question is, which hero will he be playing?

Desmond Miles

Each game features present-day bartender Desmond Miles, who’s descended from a long line of assassins – so presumably Fassbender will be playing him. At the start of the first game, Miles is is kidnapped by a secret organisation with (spoiler!) ties to the Knights Templar, and in each he uses a device called the Animus which enables him to relive ancestral memories.

In the various games so far he relives the experiences of different ancestors. In the first Assassin’s Creed he’s Altaïr ibn-La’Ahad in an adventure set during the Crusades.

In Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations he’s Ezio Auditore da Firenze during the Renaissance (as well as Altaïr in Revelations).

While in Assassin’s Creed III he will relive his time as a half-Native American, half-British man named Connor Kenway.

Maybe Fassbender will play all of them in a film that jumps around the timelines?

The film is being produced independently by Ubisoft which last year launched UMP, headed by Jean-Julien Baronnet, to adapt the company’s games into films, TV shows and digital projects. UMP is now looking for writers and a director, and will look for distribution deals with major studios when the package has been worked out.

Assassin’s Creed III videogame preview.

Assassin’s Creed Revelations review.