Why Steven Spielberg Said No To ASSASSIN'S CREED Movie
DreamWorks were among the first studio's to turn down Assassin's Creed because of Ubisoft's unprecedented creative control deal.
Last month, we spoke about Sony's deal with Ubisoft to make a movie out of the uber successful video game Assassin's Creed and early details said the developer would keep an unprecedented creative control over the project, far more than any publisher have had on any video game-to-film title in the past. Now Vulture have gone in-depth on just what this deal means, proclaiming that Ubisoft amazingly have approval on "budget, principal cast, script, release date" and They want to be able to pull the plug on the whole movies development if they decide to". One insider said As a director, even Steven Spielberg cannot get this kind of deal and interestingly the Vulture piece notes that Spielberg and DreamWorks were among the first to actually pass on the project. Says another studio exec who also passed on the deal; It's billion-dollar brand, so I get that they're protective...But 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. One Hollywood agent who represents a smaller video game publisher says Ubisoft's deal pretty much guarantees the movie will never be made; "The whole Ubisoft/Sony deal is a waste of ink, paper and time. The level of control Sony gave up means, effectively, that Assassins Creed will never and I mean never get made. Though the deal doesn't sound as bad as these talking head quotes suggest. The fact is Ubisoft are so concerned about another Prince of Persia situation (where Disney dropped the ball on adapting their title) that they are actually fronting a major portion of the costs along with Sony, so they are more like partners than anything else, which entitles them to have such large control. This isn't the case where Sony are fronting 100% the costs, which if it was the case, they wouldn't have agreed to this kind of deal. The bottom line seems to be that Ubisoft are scared to death of another Prince of Persia situation being in the works here and hopefully this will mean a better movie for all of us. Assassins Creed centers on the conflict between Templars and Assassins two secret organisations with differing religious idelogies who have inflitiated major historical events. Or at least thats what the game tells us. The historical action/adventure game was created in 2007 and the franchise has proved so popular with 30 million copies sold worldwide its already onto its four title, Assassins Creed: Revelations in four years with a new game released on Nov. 14th. The game certainly contains lavish, cinematic style scope and presentation with a Mask of Zorro type heroin. However we basically said the same thing about Prince of Persia and look how that turned out and Ubisoft will be mindful of that.