Will the Assassin’s Creed Movie and Its Sequels Break the ‘Video Game Movie Curse’?

There’s no denying that the history of video game movies is dotted with failures, with flicks like 1993’s Super Mario Bros. being panned by the critics, as well as being a box office bomb. And more recent movies like 2015’s Hitman were not much better either, featuring poor acting and boring set pieces.

Aside from decent video game movies like Silent Hill, which did justice to the horror series of video games, and Paul Anderson’s Resident Evil movies, which obviously were not masterpieces of cinema but have been solid box office hits and even have a following amongst non-gamers, the video game movie genre has not been a very successful one thus far.

Perhaps no movie is a better example of the “video game movie curse” though, than Disney’s Prince of Persia, which was released in 2010. Disney’s movie was a decent affair with solid actors like Ben Kingsley and Jake Gyllenhaal, and obviously very expensive special effects, and is a good, family-friendly (and entertaining) video game movie. Sadly though, the film is considered something of a failure, mainly due to its massive $200 million (£140 million) budget and disappointing box office results, meaning Disney’s sequel plans ended up in the gutter.

Will the Assassins shine on the silver screen? We’ll have to wait until December to find out…

And now video game company Ubisoft is attempting to break the video game movie curse with their upcoming Assassin’s Creed movie, which hits the theatres in December this year. But unlike the Prince of Persia movie (which is also based on a video game series by Ubisoft), this time Ubisoft will have creative control over the movie through its Ubisoft Motion Pictures studio. And it’s clear that the French company has big expectations for this film adaptation of Assassin’s Creed, as the movie’s budget is rumoured to be between $150 and $200 million US dollars, and big-name actors like Michael Fassbender and Hollywood star Marion Cotillard are on board.

Also, it is rumoured that there are sequels planned, with Ubisoft hoping to produce an Assassin’s Creed movie series, and that actor Michael Fassbender will reprise his role in the sequel, according to website MoviePilot.

Although it is clear that for this to happen the Assassin’s Creed movie needs to be a success first. And the truth is that Ubisoft’s movie will be up against some heavyweight competition this December, squaring off against the new Star Wars movie Rogue One, which looks like it could be a big hit judging by the film’s latest trailer. But hopefully the upcoming Assassin’s Creed movie will overcome these odds and end up being a worthy film that not only does justice to the games but also ends up breaking the video game movie curse once and for all.