Did you know that Ubisoft had a wing of production titled "Ubisoft Motion Pictures"? Crazy! I guess they must be the same people responsible for the Assassin's Creed shorts that went live in promotion of Assassin's Creed II. Logic would say that the French video game publisher wouldn't hit it and quit it. Have you seen how many Splinter Cell games are out there?
Today, Ubisoft Motion Pictures announced that it was developing 3D feature films tied into the Assassin's Creed, Splinter Cell, and Ghost Recon franchises.
Assassin's Creed will obviously center around the conflict between the Templars and the Assassins, but there's no word about how the time-bending nature of the video game series will play out on film.
Splinter Cell is reportedly getting a Bourne Identity treatment where Sam Fisher has to fight terrorists and somehow raise a kid! That should be a barrel of laughs.
Ghost Recon will follow an elite team of soldiers with high-tech equipment in their battle for world peace. You know, it's like all of this has already been done… in some other medium… TV, maybe?
Executives at Ubisoft Motion Pictures said 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.
We want to keep ownership, retain control over the film content, and we're open to work with studios on the development of our projects, and eventually collaborate on the pre-casting, pre-budget, and script.
We will have a script ready by the end of the year.
I have to say that if someone was going to make films out of these games, the publisher originally responsible for their inception should really be at the helm. Unfortunately, there's a bit of a bombshell to drop that's been left for the end of the article. Variety writes:
Ubisoft Motion Pictures is also developing "Raving Rabbids," a gag-laden, CGI 3D toon series based on the hit video game and comprising 789 episodes of seven minutes.
God help us.
I just registered for Ubisoft's E3 Press Conference today. Stay tuned to Game Revolution as I claw my eyes out following the first 30 minutes of Raving Rabbids absurdity at E3 2011.
