The Knockturnal was on the red carpet for the New York premiere of Assassin’s Creed. The film hits theaters on December 21.
Through a revolutionary technology that unlocks his genetic memories, Callum Lynch (Michael Fassbender) experiences the adventures of his ancestor, Aguilar, in 15th Century Spain. Callum discovers he is descended from a mysterious secret society, the Assassins, and amasses incredible knowledge and skills to take on the oppressive and powerful Templar organization in the present day. The film stars Academy Award nominee Michael Fassbender and Academy Award winner Marion Cotillard. The film is directed by Justin Kurzel; produced by New Regency, Ubisoft Motion Pictures, DMC Films and Kennedy/Marshall; co-financed by RatPac Entertainment and Alpha Pictures; and distributed by 20th Century Fox.
Watch our exclusive interviews below:
Brothers Yves Guillemot and Gerard Guillemot are the CEO’s / Founders of Ubisoft.
Tell me about why you wanted to bring this to life as a movie.
Yves: The goal is, when you create a universe, you really want it to be as broad as possible, that it can be seen by anyone. It’s really happening now and we are so thrilled by that.
How is working with Justin?
Gerard: Working with Justin was really great. He extracted this notion that is in the game but we couldn’t express as well, of your lineage and how your ancestors impact your life and your identity and what you should do with it.
How was collaborating with Michael?
Yves: It was great actually. It’s always exceptional when people have a lot of talent. He is gifted and that helps really, to make it happen.
What is your message to the avid gaming fans about the movie? What do you want to tell them about it?
Yves: That there are plenty of things to watch in the movie, that they will recognize, maybe characters and a certain number of elements they saw in the games, so they have to dig in and check what we’ve been putting in the movie so that they can be so happy.
Gerard: That you play the game and then you can also see all the stories that can be expanded from the universe of the game.
Anything else you want to add?
Yves: We can say we are really thrilled by the cast and by what they have been able to actually achieve and that it’s the beginning of a long story.
We also spoke with Jean de Rivieres (SVP Marketing and Associate Producer UBISOFT Motion Pictures) and Aymar Azaizia (Assassin’s Creed Head of content at Ubisoft Montréal).
Tell me about bringing this brand to film and what that process was like.
Aymar: We first started by creating Ubi Motion Pictures in order to be sure that we have all of the tools in order to be able, for the very first time, to work hand in hands with the movie guys. So it was a collaboration between creating from the game world to the movie industry because there was a lot of respect … we were able to craft something very unique. I think that when we’re talking about video game to silver screen adaptation, there’s going to be a before and an after Assassin’s Creed.
How did you guys choose your writers?
Jean: Oh. That’s a big one. It’s actually all the way through the process, the will to do quality without the pressure of time. It’s been six years we were working on this movie, as I like to say. We didn’t have a release date initially. We didn’t mind when this thing was going to come, so we took our time. The first writer, his name is Mike Lesslie, he’s an English guy. He’s very young, clever, actually loves the brand kid. He’s a 30 year old. He was what we call the blacklisted writer, meaning he had done some great scripts that hadn’t been brought to the screen and we love him because his take was great. He did the first, early job in writing. Then, it was taken by two incredible writers from Hollywood, to make it more livable, in a format we wanted and that is Adam Cooper and Bill Collage, writing together. We picked them, I think, with a lot of attention. We’ve seen 30 writers probably, that we met and talked to and these three guys made it real. It really is a human factor, the real kick to it. Aymar here, met them.
As one of the executive producers, can you speak a little bit about collaborating with Justin and what he brought to the project?
Jean: Justin is one of those one of a kind directors. He’s got a touch. We knew that from his early work, Snowtown and Macbeth. The first time we met him, we had this big, incredibly charismatic gentleman and he hadn’t played the game, is the truth, but he understood it right away, the universe of it. He was the first one to talk about authenticity that we like to carry, which Aymar and the team had been developing for years. He said, “Let’s do it real.” Let’s hire 800 extras in Malta. Let’s shoot in Malta and have real background. Justin was the guy who was so convinced we were going to do this, the exact opposite that some video game adaptations had been done. We were so with him, that then I think nothing could go wrong. It’s a piece of art, so you’re never completely sure, but at least we knew we were taking the right route to it.
Can you tell me a little bit about the special effects and bringing that to life and how you went about it?
Jean: The best thing about special effects is when you don’t notice them. The idea here was to use technology to make this movie a real story and inquisition in 15th century Spain. They were serving the story. It’s not like we have a lot to say, “We spent that much and we did that many days.” We did a lot of shots but I hope it’s not going to be noticeable so much on the screen. Of course, parkour, leaping from buildings needs help, so that’s what it did, but it’s a major part of the movie that’s here to not be noticed too much, in order to carry the story.
What are some of your favorite moments in the film?
Aymar: Oh, yeah. I’ve seen it a couple of time already. I would say my favorite moment is probably the first time Callum is put back into the past where you basically witness, what is the core of the franchise. Pulling people from the present date into the past of their ancestors and reliving through their eyes what was history, it’s super impressive. The first sequence is absolutely amazing. That would be definitely my favorite moment in the movie.
We also spoke with the film’s writers Michael Lesslie, Adam Cooper and Bill Collage.
Tell me about the process of writing that first draft?
Mike: I worked very closely with the producers from Ubisoft and from New Regency of course, and laid out the bare bones of what we see today. Then, we all came onboard and started working together on it and really made it into the proper movie.
Tell me, what did you love about this story?
Bill: I’m a video game fan for a long time and especially this video game. Adam and I had chased this for years and Mike got the job. When it circled around that we actually got a chance to be involved, it was like a dream come true.
Tell me about your process of adapting the game and how you did that?
Adam: Basically, what we did is, we all sat around in the least desirable places possible. We all flew to Paris, or London, or some horrible beach-side French town and sat with one of the wonderful producers Jean-Julien Baronnet. And basically sat there and cracked story and talked and sat with Michael Fassbender. Just all together, really just sat there and worked through various iterations, which I think you’ll get to see today.
What was your favorite scene to work on?
Adam: Probably the carriage chase scene.
Mike: For me, there’s an auto-da-fé scene in it and that was my favorite. It’s wonderful.
Bill: I was a huge fan of the intellectual curiosities behind the movie and the character journey of Michael Fassbender’s character Callum and how he fits into the overall mythology of the Assassin’s Creed games. That to me, was really special.
For people who are interested in writing or screenplay writing, can you tell me a little bit about how you got your start in this field and how you became passionate about it?
Adam: Bill and I actually met at the University of Michigan in 1990, so 27 years ago and started working together then. I don’t know. I think, quite honestly, we’re very close friends. We like working together and we just kept saying yes and trying to fall forward. We were always just writing, so my advice to anybody who’s looking to be a writer would be to just keep writing.
Mike: I’m a playwright as well, so I started out in the theater and then got my break doing a film for Colin Firth. I writer/playwright called Patrick Marber took me under his wing and started teaching me. He actually gave me the same advice, just write all the time, as much as you can. Yeah. I’ve been doing that.
Speak about the transition from writing for theater to writing for TV and film.
Mike: It was interesting. My first big theater job was an adaptation of the film Swimming With Sharks for the West End and we put it on in the West End with Christian Slater. That was about taking a film about films and making it for the stage. In many ways it was just an object lesson in telling it and making the simplest story work because we couldn’t afford all the bells and whistles of film. They’re actually quite similar disciplines in some ways but yeah, obviously you can’t get away with what you can get away with in Assassin’s Creed on the stage.
Anything you want to add for aspiring writers?
Bill: I think Adam said it right with Mike, you’ve got to keep writing and you’ve got to really take risks. A video game movie hasn’t been done right yet and the three of us got it right. If we had gotten it wrong, a lot of people would have been angry and there’s repercussions of that but we took a shot and it worked out thanks to Justin and Michael. Now we’re here to enjoy it.
Last question, what’s next for you? .
Bill: We have a movie that’s starting called Devil in the Grove, which is the Thurgood Marshall story. It’s a true story obviously about the case before Brown verses the Board of Education. It’s a very special piece. It’s very different from this film. It’s very small and very, hopefully like Michael’s material, very sophisticated.
Mike: I’m doing a couple of TV series and I’m doing a film with Benedict Cumberbatch called Rogue Male at the moment, which is an adaptation of a classic English novel, which I’m about to finish. Hopefully we’ll be shooting that next year.
Are you excited to work with him? His fans are very avid.
Mike: I am really excited to work with Benedict. Yeah. He’s phenomenal. He’s a great producer as well as a great actor. Like with Michael on this, it’s great to be working with the people who are going to be up on the screen. They really know what they want, which is great.
Director Justin Kurzel spoke about working on the film.
Tell me about what attracted you to work on the project.
Justin: Well Michael Fassbender asked me. I was editing my second film Macbeth at the time and he just started talking about the idea of genetic memory and this character, I guess discovering that he’s an assassin through his blood and through the memories of his ancestors and it just sounded like a really cool idea. Then, I was welcomed to the world of Assassin’s Creed and that universe blew me away quite a bit. I was staggered that a film hadn’t been made about it already.
How was collaborating with Ubisoft?
Justin: It was great. They were really wanting us to find a film story in there, that were very heavily involved in the development of the screenplay. All along the way, they were encouraging us to find something unique and original within the story.
What message do you have for the avid fans of the game?
Justin: I hope you really see an unexpected story there. I hope it’s something that surprises the fans. We love this world and we love this universe. We’re really thrilled to be able to get it on screen with these fantastic actors and also some pretty amazing action sequences.
Speaking of the actors, you have such a stellar cast. Can you tell me about wrangling them? Obviously Michael was onboard already.
Justin: Michael was a huge part of that. I think everyone wants to work with Michael and Marion. I think all of them were just really surprised by the characters. There was a depth there that they didn’t expect. It’s great. Brendan Gleeson, Michael K. Williams, Jeremy, it was Ariane Labed, amazing French actress. It’s been fun getting them all together.