‘Assassin’s Creed’ Film Reveals Behind-The-Scenes Footage in E3 Promo; Ubisoft Revenue Falls Behind Expectations

‘Assassin’s Creed’ revealed behind-the-scenes footage during the recent E3.  It featured interviews from the cast and crew as well as exclusive clips of various action sequences. Meanwhile, Ubisoft’s revenue failed to reach expected numbers for its fiscal third quarter.

According to the Independent, Ubisoft and 20th Century Fox revealed new behind-the-scenes footage of the upcoming live-action cinematic adaptation of the popular ‘Assassin’s Creed’ games during the Ubisoft’s E3 2016 corporate event. Michael Fassbender and Marion Cottilard reunited with ‘Macbeth’ director Justin Kurzel to bring the historical science-fiction action-adventure video game series to the big screen.

Fassbender is set to play the lead protagonist Callum Lynch and his 15th century ancestor Aguilar de Nerha back-to-back. Cotillard will play Dr. Sophia Rikkin, a researcher employed in Abstergo Industries and daughter to Abstergo CEO and high-ranking Templar member Alan Rikkin. Joining Fassbender and Cotillard are Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson, Ariane Labed, and Michael K. Williams.

The new featurette showed various battle scenes from the film as well as exclusive interviews from the cast and crew. Fassbender opened the featurette by saying, “The citizens are fighting for free world and their main rivals are Templars. The Templars are trying to enhance humankind through science.”

Kurzel also explained that the concept of time travel will be explored deeply in the upcoming film. He said, “I think ‘Assassin’s Creed’ has a really deep concept and idea, which is going back into time - having some sort of relationship with the ancestor that’s come before you.”

He added, “The overall journey of the film is through the eyes of our protagonist that Michael Fassbender’s playing.”

In one scene, Sophia is seen experimenting on Callum after declaring that she wants his past. Callum is suspended in the air by gigantic robotics and the scene cuts to old century Spain, which shows Aguilar fighting for his life.

Aguilar is revealed to be Callum’s ancestor – a member of the Spanish brotherhood of Assassins. Towards the end of the teaser, Aguilar is seen performing a leap of faith from the Seville Cathedral.

Producer Frank Marshall revealed during an interview with IGN that the film will be 65% set in the present while the other 35% will be set in the past. Ubisoft Motion Pictures' VP of Global Marketing Stephan Simard said, "Working in the present day really gave a lot of freedom to develop new storylines and characters who are very three-dimensional and emotional, and bring in a wider audience as well as excite our existing fans with new stories to engage with."

Meanwhile, Ubisoft’s gaming franchise failed generate the expected revenue. According to Venture Beat, the French multinational video game developer and publisher reportedly earned $638 million in sales during its fiscal third quarter, down from the $681 million prediction.

It was reported that ‘Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate’, released in October 2015, was to blame for the company’s less-than-stellar performance at the global gaming market. Ubisoft announced that it planned to skip the video game franchise for the meantime in an effort to win back fans following the release of Kurzel’s adaptation.

‘Assassin’s Creed’ is an upcoming big-screen adaptation of Ubisoft’s video game series of the same name. It is scheduled to be released on December 21, 2016.