‘Assassin’s Creed’ Film Updates: Video Game Adaptation Official Runtime Finally Revealed; Historical Sequences All in Spanish

‘Assassin’s Creed’ is reportedly going to run for a full 140 minutes, longer than other videogame adaptations that were released before it in 2016. Meanwhile, director Justin Kurzel confirmed that all historical sequences featured in the film had been shot in Spanish.

According to Comicbook.com, a listing on Empire Cinemas revealed that Kurzel’s upcoming live-action adaptation of the highly popular Ubisoft videogame series of the same name is officially clocking in at 140 minutes. This makes the run time approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes – making it the longest videogame adaptation of 2016.

It was reported by Screen Rant that other videogame cinematic adaptation paled by comparison. Duncan Jones’ ‘Warcraft’ ran for 130 minutes, Fergal Reilly and Clay Kaytis’ ‘The Angry Birds Movie’ ran for 97 minutes, while Kevin Munroe’s ‘Ratchet & Clank’ ran for 94 minutes.

The upcoming film is set to star ‘Macbeth’ co-stars Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard as Callum Lynch/Aguilar de Nerha and Sophia Rikkin, respectively. Other members of the ensemble cast include Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons as Abstergo Industries CEO Alan Rikkin, Emmy Award winner Brendan Gleeson as Callum’s father, Emmy Award nominee Michael K. Williams as Moussa/Baptiste, and Ariane Labed as 15th century Spanish assassin Maria.

Kurzel previously revealed that his adaptation will be set mostly in the present day, with 35% set in the past. Fassbender’s Callum will be relieving the memories of his ancestor Aguilar in 15th century Spain through the use of a technologically advanced machine used in the Animus Project.

According to Games Radar, it was revealed that all the historical sequences featured in the film have been shot in Spanish. Kurzel explained, “I just love the fact [production company] New Regency embraced it… We did play around with English as well, but it was really obvious what you wanted as soon as you went back and started speaking beautiful Spanish. It really adds an exoticness and richness to the film.” 

To add to the authenticity of the film, Kurzel also revealed that Fassbender did most of his own stunts for the double-role. The director explained in a separate interview, “He did a lot of the stunts himself. He did a lot of fight sequences himself. That was really important to both of us. That it actually looked like our Assassin was actually him all the time and who you saw was the actor playing him. We were much more involved in the physical action than we were previously in Macbeth.”

‘Assassin’s Creed’ is an upcoming action-adventure and fantasy film scheduled to premiere in theaters on December 21, 2016. It is directed by Justin Kurzel with a screenplay prepared by Bill Collage, Adam Cooper, and Michael Lesslie. 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.