14 DAY TRIAL // It wasn't long ago that a spine-chilling rumor made its way on the internet: Robert Downey Jr. was quitting the “Iron Man” franchise. Today, a new rumor is indicating that he may be turning his attention to another popular franchise, this time from gaming, “Assassin's Creed.”
Any gamer worth his controller has played at least one game in the “Assassin's Creed” franchise and knows the background story. The news that Robert Downey Jr. was taking part in the movie adaptation came from Moviepilot, which has since taken down the article in question.
This would indicate that the report is not 100% accurate. However, the rumor says that Downey is supposed to take on the role of Leonardo da Vinci in the movie that has Michael Fassbender playing the leading role of Desmond Miles, the title character.
Downey set to play Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Fassbender the title role
To give you an idea of the plot, Fassbender is going to play Desmond Miles, a bartender who is captured by a large corporation and is forced in a machine called “The Animus” which allows him to access the memories of his ancestors and thus retrieve powerful and dangerous artifacts.
In the game series, Leonardo da Vinci comes into the story in the second installment, “Assassin's Creed II,” providing assistance to the assassin called Ezio Auditore da Firenze. To give you more perspective, Downey would end playing the mentor role in the movie rather than the action hero, which many would now consider appropriate since he did his fair share of world-saving as Iron Man.
The fact that the original report was taken down doesn't necessarily mean that the story is not true. Since there has been no official denial of the report, we can expect an accredited source to confirm Downey's involvement in the project.
“Assassin's Creed” is a huge gaming franchise with lots of box office potential
The “Assassin's Creed” movie has been in the works for several years now, but it's just reached the casting phase. Justin Kurzel is going to direct the project that is slated to be released on August 7, 2015.
As for Robert Downey Jr., he is getting ready to appear in the second Avengers movie “The Age of Ultron,” while also playing down the prospect of appearing in a fourth Iron Man movie, much to the fans' dismay.
In ending, here is an interesting piece of trivia for you: in the first “Iron Man” movie back in 2008, Downey's character, Tony Stark, is interviewed by a reporter who tells him “You've been called the da Vinci of our time. What do you say to that?” The playboy billionaire deadpans, “Absolutely ridiculous. I don't paint.”