14 DAY TRIAL // Ubisoft Motion Pictures, the branch of the French video game publisher that is focused on creating movies out of its intellectual property, has announced that it was already working on full-fledged live action movies, using the popular new three-dimensional shooting process, based on series like Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon and Assassin's Creed.
A series of animated short movies based on Raving Rabbids, itself a spin-off from the Rayman franchise, is also in development.
Jean de Rivieres, who is a senior vice president of international marketing and distribution at the Ubisoft Motion Pictures division, has told Variety that, “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.”
Ubisoft says that at least one of the projects will have a script before the end of the year and that a number of United States based studios and screenwriters are interested in all the projects.
Video game publisher have sought for a long time to reach wider audiences by creating movies based on popular concepts and characters, but the results have often been disappointing, with the quality of the movies often serving as a repellant to audiences outside the gaming space.
The most interesting project is the one based around the Assassin's Creed franchise, mainly because it's convoluted story, which involves a number of time frames and a conspiracy theory, would probably be the most interesting to movie-going audiences.
Ubisoft has already announced that a new Assassin's Creed video game, called Revelations, will be launched during the month of November this year, again starring Ezio as the main character and providing a conclusion to his story, answering many of the questions fans have about the franchise.