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Ubisoft Launching Their Own Motion Picture Division to Make Movies

by Alex Billington
May 2, 2011
Source: Variety, GameSpot

It looks like video game maker Ubisoft wasn't too happy with the way Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time turned out either. Variety reports that French company Ubisoft is launching a new division called Ubisoft Motion Pictures to adapt and develop its own game franchises into movies and TV shows. CEO Yves Guillemot made the announcement at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, via GameSpot, but didn't mention any projects they're working on. The new film division will be based out of Paris and include a staff with the former CEO of Luc Besson's EuropaCorp and former Walt Disney France executive in distribution. Read on!

This is a very bold first step for a video game manufacturer to finally enter the movie world on their own. But apparently it's not because they really want to, oddly. "We will start making movies not because we want to, but because this is what we have to do," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot explained. "If we don't, we will not be able to take advantage of the next generation." So is this a response to Prince of Persia not being everything they wanted or is this just Ubisoft being smart by focusing on developing their product beyond just gaming. Either way, it's news worth discussing, because it could mean the future of video game movies might actually have some hope. But who knows, only time will tell what this new studio will deliver.

Ubisoft was founded in 1986 and has grown to become one the largest independent video game publishers in the world. Their library contains fantastic award-winning series like: Assassin's Creed, Beyond Good & Evil, Far Cry, Might and Magic, H.A.W.X, Myst, Prince of Persia, Rayman, Red Steel and the Tom Clancy franchise. Honestly, I could see pretty much any one of those be turned into a movie, let's just hope Ubisoft knows how to put together a great Hollywood movie... without Hollywood. It would be all for nothing if their movies turned out worse, but I'm sure they have a plan. Which games do you want to see?

Explore tags: Development, Movie News, Opinions

http://twitter.com/timzila Timothy

A Beyond Good and Evil game could be amazing. It'd need to be from a real director with a good script with a decent budget, though.
JL

I hope this means a good Splinter Cell or Assassin's Creed movie.

Anonymous

Splinter Cell, indeed. Fisher MUST be on the big screen...

JL

The problem is that they have such an awesome voice actor for the games, who is also a veteran film actor, yet he's not even close to Sam Fishers physical double and he's too old. I mean Michael Ironside does an awesome job on SC's voice acting, and sounds so distinct, so how are they going to find someone who both looks and sounds like Sam Fisher.

Jericho

Assassins creed ftfw.....

MajesticXIII

"Just what I always wanted!!!" (Harrison Ford accent, "The Return of The Jedi") "Ubisoft is like a virus from an ugly nightmare.." (Sylvester Stallone accent, Upcoming film released in 2014)

Xerxexx

So you like the idea? or no?

Xerxexx

Hm...perhaps video game movies will start being good?
peimeilotus

the shorts for assasin's creed we're ok , but it's always going to be hard to have a good video game movie or a superhero movie because you always have the need to go do an origin story for the non gamers or non readers and to bring in a larger audience you need to add a ton of crap or change the original story

Xerxexx

I always say do a story within the universe. Take the up and coming Bioshock film for example: I would rather see a story about a survivor within Rapture or a Splicer and his rise, or Tenebaum's story.

Jericho

ditto and with the story of the games being a very LONG family line of assassins...you can pick wherever you want.....

Xerxexx

indeed. stories within stand a better chance than trying to bring the main plot to the big screen.

http://twitter.com/darktaxidermist David Perretta

I was happy with Prince Of Persia..

JL

Don't you mean Prince of Scandinavia?

Anonymous

You'll need an Internet connection to watch these movies.
stfugtfo

ac ftw
Redguy

omg assassin's creed there's a huge story..don't think Altair will fit in a 3 hour movie..not to mention Ezio, not to mention ...wait, offtopic. Yay for Ubisoft!
Angeredmob

This looks like a smart movie, they'd have more control over possibly crappy scripts of their products. I hope this doesn't backfire. Also, H.A.W.X. is part of the Tom Clancy franchise.
David Banner

Valve had the same idea a few years ago. I do not know if they actually have something in the works, they tend to not to open their months without a product finished for release. Working on essentially the same project, side-by-side, film and game in parallel production, hand-in-hand(get it now?) is a good idea. Films that come out 3-5-10 years after the movie tend to not 'be the same story'. My bet would be an animated feature they will make first, makes sense.
CanofNothingdA

Rayman 2, or Ubisoft is nuts. They keep porting it to lots of consoles, they gotta make it into a movie.