Ubisoft demanding “unheard of amount of control” for Assassin’s Creed movie
Sony and Ubisoft may have reached an agreement on the rights to the film for a movie based on the Assassin’s Creed series of video games, yet the rest of Hollywood is stunned at the amount of control Sony has had to give up to make the deal happen.
Films inspired or based on video games are nothing new to Hollywood, with series such as Resident Evil, Hitman, Tekken, Street Fighter and Max Payne, just a few titles that have been given the silver screen treatment.
However, Ubisoft seem more than just a little aware as to how film versions of the games tend to fall flat on their faces. According to reports from around Hollywood it seems that Ubisoft are taking no chances with that happening to the Assassin’s Creed
movie as they have demanded and gained unprecedented levels of control over the project.
To sum things up one of the bidders for the film rights explained, “They (Ubisoft) want to be able to pull the plug on the whole movie’s development if they decide to.” Something that he deems to be, “ridiculous.”
Another Hollywood ‘big shot’ put it his way, “As a director, even Steven Spielberg cannot get this kind of deal.”
In short, “Sony had to grant the gaming company approval over just about everything – budget, principal cast, script, release date – and Hollywood spectators are flabbergasted.”
It is the first time that a video game film adaptation has seen such a deal, with rights usually bought and then the movie taken down a path that Hollywood is used to, which has the producers in absolute control.
There is some worrying news as well as one particular agents went as far as saying, “The level of control Sony gave up means, effectively, that Assassin’s Creed will never – and I mean never – get made.”
It seems that Hollywood is in shock and reacting to the deal in apprehensive fashion, yet seeing how a majority of video game adaptations are usually average, Max Payne is one example; maybe Ubisoft exercising this level of control may not be a bad thing.
Only time will tell.
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