When he's not running round manipulating metal and plotting mutant superiority in the X-Men movies, actor Michael Fassbender is getting into the film production side of things through his company DMC Film. Fassbender's current big project is Assassin's Creed, a historical sci-fi movie based on the popular video game franchise developed and published by Ubisoft.

The Assassin's Creed games are set partly in the modern day and are based around the discovery of the Animus, a fictional device that allows people to unlock their genetic memory and experience the lives of their ancestors. Historical settings explored in the game have so far included the Italian Renaissance, Israel and Syria during the Crusades, and the American Revolution.

Assassin's Creed is a narrative-heavy series - and between the modern plot and the historical plots, there's far more story than could be contained in a two-hour movie. Speaking in an interview with Coming Soon, Fassbender said that this is "always the challenge of something that’s so dense, to really find something and pare it down... there are so many elements to it, so trying to translate that to an audience, you have to pick key things."

The challenges of making a decent video game movie might explain why Assassin's Creed has spent so much time in development. The film was originally set for release this summer, but has since been pushed back to December 2016. In the same interview Fassbender said that the film, which will star himself and Marion Cotillard in leading roles, will begin production in September this year.

Assuming that things go according to schedule, this means that Assassin's Creed will have a generous amount of time for production and post-production. The movie is being co-produced by New Regency and Ubisoft Motion Pictures, the latter of which is a newly-founded branch of Ubisoft that is dedicated to creating feature films based on the company's video game titles. Assassin's Creed will be the first of these adaptations.

Fassbender remained tight-lipped about the plot of the movie, though a previous rumor claimed that the historical setting will be the Spanish Inquisition and Fassbender will play both the modern day and fifteenth century protagonists. If the start of production is just a few months away, we may not have wait long to find out if this is true.

Assassin’s Creed arrives in theaters on December 21st, 2016.

Source: Coming Soon