Assassin’s Creed Gives Hollywood The Middle Finger

This is probably one of my favorite news stories in recent times. It seems tons of studios and Hollywood agents are up in arms over how Ubisoft handled selling the rights for the Assassin’s Creed movie. To make a long story short, Ubisoft wouldn’t allow anyone to develop or distribute the film unless they were able to maintain nearly complete control over everything. The deal that finally came to be with Sony gives Ubisoft approval over budget, script, casting and release date. Many studios, including Spielberg’s Dreamworks, Universal and Warner Bros, turned down the project for this exact reason. I personally think that this is spectacular. Ubisoft is not a company of morons, they make multi-million dollar games and let’s face it, the stories out of videogames these days are on a whole other level when compared to most films. Yes, I know the studios do much more than work with story, but it’s also the studios that decide the film needs to reach the dreaded “wider audience.” I like to picture it going something like this:

Ubisoft: So in this scene, Ezio is finally going to slowly come out of his cover and approach his target head on fully knowing that he can’t make it out alive. As the guards close in around him, he gives “the signal” and his assassin brothers rain in from the rooftops and the scene is a bloodbath ending with Ezio having a one on one with his target!

Studio: Hmmm I like that, but is there anyway we can market this to the age group of 8-12? Aha! Instead of a league of assassins, why don’t we give Ezio some cooky partners. He could have a fat assassin who’s gas knocks out guards. Maybe one who’s hidden blade could always misfire and shoot out whoopee cushions or Silly String! We’ll sell so much merchandise!!!… wait, wait, wait… how do you feel about an animated sidekick?!?

Read some of the hilariously furious comments from different studio execs after the jump… 

- “They want to be able to pull the plug on the whole movie’s development if they decide to. It’s ridiculous.”

- “They’re not moviemakers, and the only way to make sure it’s a bad movie is to undervalue what movie studios do — and this is a deal that totally undervalues what movie studios do.” 

- “The whole Ubisoft/Sony deal is a waste of ink, paper and time. The level of control Sony gave up means, effectively, that Assassin’s Creed will never — and I mean never — get made.” 

-Vulture

Please God, let this movie get made and let it be absolutely incredible. Game companies are putting things out that the fans want, realizing that it will make them more money based on popularity and fanbase. Movie studios are destroying things fans love realizing it will piss people off, but more people will see it and therefore spend money on it. This is a big chance for videogame films to take an ENORMOUS step in the right direction…