Assassin's Creed

Assassin's Creed (2016)

Timing: 1:56 (116 min)

5.432/10
8068

5.8/10
179122

5.6/10
219000

All about film

Video 10

Photo 86

Actors and characters

Release date

2016-12-21

Country

France, United Kingdom, United States

Production

New Regency Pictures, The Kennedy/Marshall Company, Ubisoft Film & Television, DMC Film

Genre

Action, Adventure, Science Fiction

Budget

$125 000 000

Revenue

$240 697 856

Website

https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/assassins-creed

Director

Justin Kurzel

Actors

Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson, Charlotte Rampling, Michael Kenneth Williams, Ariane Labed, James Sobol Kelly, Denis Ménochet, Callum Turner
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Arnon Milchan, Frank Marshall, Michael Fassbender, Patrick Crowley, Conor McCaughan, Jean-Julien Baronnet, Gerard Guillemot, Philip Lee, Markus Barmettler, Serge Hascoet

Operator

Adam Arkapaw

Composer

Jed Kurzel

Artist

Marco Anton Restivo, David Doran, Felicity Hickson

Audition

Jina Jay, Tonucha Vidal

Editing

Christopher Tellefsen, Alison Banks
All team (329)

• The film is based on an original screenplay written specifically for the production and does not follow the plot of the games.
• The film's release was initially scheduled for 2015, but the world premiere was eventually postponed to 2016.
• As a producer of this film, Michael Fassbender lobbied for director Justin Kurzel and actress Marion Cotillard to be involved.
• Alicia Vikander turned down a film role to participate in the upcoming Jason Bourne project with Matt Damon.
• In September 2015, the film was shot in Valletta (Malta) under the working title TOOM. TOOM is an abbreviation of the phrase "Time Out Of Mind".
• According to Marion Cotillard, the main reason she agreed to the role was the opportunity to work again with Michael Fassbender and director Justin Kurzel, who had previously collaborated with her on the film "Macbeth" (2015).
• The "Abstergo" complex was built in such a way that most of its rooms were interconnected by corridors as much as possible, allowing cinematographer Adam Arkapaw to shoot long takes with minimal editing.
• Filming took place at Pinewood Studios in London, where a model of the "Abstergo" complex was constructed. This same location is used to film James Bond movies.
• Over 900 extras in 15th-century clothing were involved in the filming in Malta.
• The filmmakers redesigned the Animus to make it more interactive for the actors, and Ubisoft liked its new look so much that they decided to include it in the next game in the series.
• The film is based on the video game of the same name. Actor Michael Fassbender had never played any of the nine games in the series before filming and didn't even know they existed until Ubisoft offered him the lead role.
• All of the Assassin costumes were handmade, and it took 2–3 months to create them. There are eight variations of each costume, and a whole team of costume designers was assigned to each Assassin.
• The prop makers received a detailed list of all the weapons used in the video games from Ubisoft as reference material.
• Fassbender decided to participate in the project because he wanted to star in a fantasy film with a scientific bent. Additionally, he found the idea of a confrontation between the Templars and Assassins intriguing.
• According to Jean-Julien Baronnet, CEO of Ubisoft Motion Pictures, Michael Fassbender was the first choice for the role of the iconic hero in a hood.
• Michael Fassbender and Ariana Labed performed 95% of all fight scenes themselves.
• Director Kurzel did not want his film to resemble 'superhero cinema'. On the contrary, he strived to answer the question 'What does it mean to be human?' through practical effects and parkour stunts.
• During the construction of the courtyard set in Malta, a waterspout collapsed onto the set and caused significant damage.
• Michael Fassbender had previously worked with four of this film’s actors: with Marion Cotillard in 'Macbeth' (2015), with Michael Kenneth Williams in the drama '12 Years a Slave' (2013), with Denis Ménochet in 'Inglourious Basterds' (2009), and with Brendan Gleeson in the action film 'London Has Fallen' (2016).
• Director Justin Kurzel did not want to portray the Assassins as heroes and the Templars as villains, or vice versa, because neither of these ideologies can be categorically called right or wrong, and both can be corrupted and fall into extremes: anarchy in the case of the Assassins and totalitarianism in the case of the Templars.
• This is Michael Fassbender’s second role in a video game franchise. He also voiced the character of King Logan in the game Fable 3 (2011).
• Michael Fassbender decided to take on the role of producer because he wanted to be involved in a project where he could be aware of all aspects of production from the very beginning.
• Director Justin Kurzel wanted the events unfolding in medieval Spain to look historically realistic, not fantastical.
• The cast is very multinational: Michael Fassbender has Irish-German roots, Marion Cotillard is French, Jeremy Irons and Callum Turner are English, Brendan Gleeson is Irish, Michael Kenneth Williams is American, and Ariane Labed is Greek.
• Quadcopters (drones) were used to film the most dynamic action scenes in the movie.
• Michael Fassbender actively participated in post-production, including editing.
• Director Justin Kurzel strove for maximum realism, so most of the action scenes, including stunts, were filmed primarily with a camera without the use of computer graphics.
• According to the producers, Justin Kurzel needed very little time to shoot large-scale action scenes thanks to his high level of organization. For example, five weeks were allocated for filming the scene with horses, but the scene was ultimately shot in just three days.
• The cast includes two Academy Award winners – Marion Cotillard and Jeremy Irons, and two Academy Award nominees – Michael Fassbender and Charlotte Rampling.
• This is the second joint project for Jeremy Irons and Brendan Gleeson after Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of Heaven" (2005).
• Actress Olivia Mann expressed interest in this project.
• The film's release date in the US and a number of other countries – December 21 – is a reference to the date of the fictional apocalypse in the Assassin’s Creed franchise.
• Actor Brian Gleeson played the role of young Joseph, while actor Brendan Gleeson played Joseph in the present day. In real life, they are son and father.
• Stuntman Damien Walters actually had to perform a "Leap of Faith" during filming – from a height of almost forty meters (125 feet). This is one of the highest stunt jumps in cinema in 35 years. It lasted almost 3 seconds.
• In the film "Assassin's Creed," Jeremy Irons plays the villain. In the series "The Borgias" (2011), he plays Rodrigo Borgia – the main villain in the second part of the Assassin's Creed video game series.
• Historical scenes in 15th-century Spain were filmed in Spanish. According to the director, they initially tried to shoot them in English, but the decision to use Spanish was too obvious and correct. Furthermore, it added exoticism and complexity to the film. However, in the video games, scenes in the past and present are spoken exclusively in English, explaining the absence of a language barrier with the Animus's built-in translation program.
• With the exception of the CEO of "Abstergo Industries," Alan Rikkin (who makes a brief appearance in the first video game), completely new characters were created for the film, and an original story was written.
• When portraying Aguilar de Nerha in the past storyline, Michael Fassbender wore brown contact lenses to create an image of detachment from the surrounding world and a slight dissimilarity to Callum Lynch – his other main character from the modern era.
• In the film, Aguilar has his ring finger severed on his right hand due to the hidden blade. In the Assassin's Creed game, Assassins had their ring finger severed on their left hand. Furthermore, finger removal was done to Assassins before the 15th century so it wouldn't interfere with the blade's deployment. After the blade was modernized, finger amputation was no longer required.
• In September 2015, the film was shot in Valletta (Malta) under the working title TOOM. TOOM is an abbreviation of the phrase "Time Out Of Mind".
• According to Marion Cotillard, the main reason she agreed to the role in the film was the opportunity to work with Michael Fassbender and director Justin Kurzel again, who had previously worked with her on the film "Macbeth" (2015).
• The "Abstergo" complex was built in such a way that most of its rooms were interconnected with each other by corridors, as much as possible, so that operator Adam Arkapaw could shoot long takes without extensive use of editing.
• Filming took place at Pinewood Studios in London, where a model of the Abstergo complex was built. The same location is used to film James Bond movies.
• Director Kurzel did not want his film to resemble a "superhero movie." Instead, he sought to answer the question "What does it mean to be human?" through practical effects and parkour stunts.
• Michael Fassbender had previously worked with four of the actors in this film: with Marion Cotillard in "Macbeth" (2015), with Michael Kenneth Williams in the drama "12 Years a Slave" (2013), with Denis Ménochet in "Inglourious Basterds" (2009), and with Brendan Gleeson in the action film "London Has Fallen" (2016).
• The cast is very multinational: Michael Fassbender has Irish-German roots, Marion Cotillard is French, Jeremy Irons and Callum Turner are English, Brendan Gleeson is Irish, Michael Kenneth Williams is American, and Ariane Labed is Greek.
• The cast includes two Academy Award winners – Marion Cotillard and Jeremy Irons – and two nominees for the award – Michael Fassbender and Charlotte Rampling.
• This is the second joint project for Jeremy Irons and Brendan Gleeson after Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of Heaven" (2005).