‘Assassin’s Creed’ Film Updates: Stuntman Performs Death-Defying Feat in New Behind-the-Scenes Video; Adaptation to Feature Familiar Video Game Characters

‘Assassin’s Creed’ stuntman performs a death-defying feat in a newly released behind-the-scenes video. A member of the production crew also revealed that the live-action adaptation will feature familiar characters from the original video games by Ubisoft.

According to Screen Crush, Fassbender previously revealed that director Justin Kurzel’s upcoming live-action adaptation of one the bestselling video game of the same name would employ practical effects as well as CGI effects. A newly released behind-the-scenes video featured Michael Fassbender’s stuntman Damien Walters performing a 125-foot jump in one of the highest freefalls done by a stuntman in the last 35 years of cinematic history.

Walters and his team prepared for the death-defying stunt for days by trying to figure out the best and safest way to do a spectacular jump without sacrificing the shot, according to Polygon. The video showed Walters’ process of jumping from platforms of 70 and 90-feet high before finally taking on the 125-foot fall. Walters has also performed stunts in films such as Matthew Vaughn’s ‘Kingsman:  The Secret Service’, Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s ‘Jupiter Ascending’, and Sam Mendes’ ‘Skyfall’.

Producer Patrick Crowley said that a dangerous stunt such as the one done by Walters is typically done through special effects. However, Kurzel’s vision of creating a film that looked as real as possible needed practical effects to pull off such a scene.

Fassbender is set to play the film’s main protagonist Callum Lynch as his 15th Century Spanish ancestor Aguilar. Callum was made specifically for the film and is not originally from the video games series.

According to Gamespot, however, the adaptation will feature familiar characters from the video games that fans may recognize. Production armorer Tim Wildgoose teased that some assassins will be taken to the big screen but didn’t specific who. Wildgoose said, "They're not main characters from the games, but they're very famous characters that the fans will probably enjoy."

It was also revealed that Aguilar and Maria’s assassin blades were replicas of weapons used in the  original video games.  Wildgoose said, “Although we’re designing the weapons ourselves, there are certain things you have to stick to — the way the wrist blades work… In that sense, we were going the Ubisoft reference as a design guide. At the same time, there are assassins from the games in the film as well. In some case, we could directly copy the Ubisoft weapons onto their characters.”

‘Assassin’s Creed’ is an upcoming action-adventure and fantasy film directed by Justin Kurzel with a screenplay prepared by Bill Collage, Adam Cooper, and Michael Lesslie. It stars Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson, and Ariane Labed. It is produced by Ubisoft Entertainment, Ubisoft Motion Pictures, New Regency Pictures, Regency Enterprises, DMC Film, The Kennedy/Marshall Company, and Monarchy Enterprises S.a.r.l.

It is scheduled to premiere in theaters on December 21, 2016.