Movie News: MARION COTILLARD IN GRAVITY-DEFYING ACTION ADVENTURE “ASSASSIN’S CREED”

Academy Award winning actress Marion Cotillard (“La Vie En Rose”) reunites with acclaimed actor Michael Fassbender (“X-Men” movies) and director Justin Kurzel (“Macbeth”) in the most anticipated thrilling live-action adaptation of the Ubisoft video game “Assassin’s Creed” that tells the story of an ancient war between two rival sects: Assassins and Templars.

Cotillard plays Sofia Rikken in “Assassin’s Creed,” a scientist at the Abstergo facility who saves Fassbender’s Callum Lynch from a lethal injection on death row and introduces him to the concept of genetic regressions. Her motives are pure enough – a drive to eradicate violence from the human genome – but her methods, and the motives of the shadowy Abstergo organization are far from clear.  A well-meaning scientist at the Abstergo facility and the daughter of Alan Rikken (played by Academy Award® winner Jeremy Irons) who is a Templar through and through, and is using his daughter’s grasp of complex science to manipulate her motives.

Fassbender responded immediately to the central “Assassin’s Creed” notion, that through technology we can tap the genetic memories of our ancestors and relive their experiences across history. “The idea that we hold in us the experiences, mistakes and memories of our ancestors was really fascinating,” notes Fassbender. “I thought it was a really cool scientific theory that seemed very plausible.”

Reuniting the team that had been responsible for such a critical success was immediately appealing to Cotillard.  “I had such an amazing experience with Justin and Michael on Macbeth,” she notes. “Even before I read it I wanted to work with them again. And I really loved this character. I wanted to make Sofia live, and my focus was to create who she would be on screen.”

 

The movie’s production was assisted by a team at Ubisoft who specialise in researching the history that comes through the games. The events are real. The only embellishment is the notion of two groups that operate in the shadows – the Assassins and their bitter rivals, the Templars, under which Sofia belongs – who orchestrate events that will change the balance of power.

 “There’s this kind of ambiguity to the moral compasses of being an Assassin and being a Templar,” says Kurzel. “The Templars believe in benign control, whereas the Assassins are obviously all about free will. These are two opposing extremes.”

Cotillard agrees with the director while explaining her character, “Yeah, he (Cal) has his way and his ideology to eradicate violence, which goes too far. She has another vision of it. We all want the same thing, but we don’t have the same books, and we don’t have the same vision. I think it’s really bold and amazing because it’s going to be an actual subject for a long time. What it says is really interesting – the different visions. There are no good people and bad people; it’s all just different visions for the same goal, which creates war.”

“Assassin’s Creed” opens January 4 in cinemas nationwide from 20^thCentury Fox.  Follow 20^th Century Fox (Philippines) Facebook page, 20thcenturyfoxph on YouTube and Instagram and @20centuryfoxph on Twitter.

Movie News: MICHAEL FASSBENDERS’S “ASSASSIN’S CREED” ROLLS IN CINEMAS STARTING JANUARY 4

The action-packed and breathtaking game-to-movie adaptation “Assassin’s Creed” starring Michael Fassbender follows dual characters Callum Lynch and Aguilar de Nehra in the modern day and 15th Century Spain respectively. In the 15th Century, Aguilar is joined by Maria, a more experienced Assassin than him, who is his most trusted ally. In the modern day, Cal finds himself at the Abstergo facility with a rag-tag bunch of fellow inmates who are all suffering from the effects of prolonged exposure to the Animus, and have their own ancestral Assassin legacies.

From the onset, director Justin Kurzel was adamant about filming as much of "Assassin's Creed" as possible without relying on green screens and computer-generated imagery.

As one of the video gaming industry’s most popular and beloved franchises, “Assassin’s Creed” is famous for its heart-pounding action sequences. The series was among the first to prominently feature Parkour as a major gameplay element, with Assassins breathlessly vaulting over the rooftops of cities including Jerusalem, Florence, Paris and London.

 "We're shooting a lot with real people, in real locations, on top of real churches with real light," Kurzel said. "We're building a lot of the sets to make something that is real and cinematic."

 "There’s very little green screen in this, which is highly unusual in these films," adds Fassbender. "We have stunt guys jumping across buildings in [Maltese capital] Valletta. We’ve got (stunt man Damian Walters) doing a 120-foot leap of faith, without any rope, into a bag, so it’s pretty incredible to see."

                For his big-screen adaptation, Kurzel sought to amplify that dizzying style with thundering carriage chases, elaborate sword fights, and close hand-to-hand combat. The director also realized the film had to prominently feature the Leap of Faith, a signature Assassin’s Creed move in which Assassins leap from the edge of buildings and plummet gracefully to the ground below, landing on their backs in water or bales of hay. “What happens if you do a real Leap of Faith?” Kurzel asked. “What would happen if you actually saw Assassins jump from building to building? The great thing about cinema is that you can bring that human element into it, where the audience responds and reacts to the idea that they are watching real human beings actually put the effort and danger in doing those things.”

                Kurzel and his team tapped some of the top Parkour talents to determine how to stage the action of Assassin’s Creed without relying on extensive CG trickery. The production then travelled to some of the most visually stunning corners of the globe in the hopes of capturing one-of-a-kind sequences that would offer viewers an immersive—and realistic—experience.

                “I never wanted the film to feel like superheroes,” Kurzel says. “I wanted you to look at it and think, Wow, there are human beings doing that and they are doing it like Olympians, as opposed to filming on a parking lot with green screen. You can feel that artifice. That is probably why we went toward a more old-school approach, to make the whole film feel more human and more intimate.”

 

                “Assassin’s Creed” opens January 4 in cinemas nationwide from 20^thCentury Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros. 

Movies: INTO THE DEATH-DEFYING WORLD OF “ASSASSIN’S CREED” THROUGH ABSTERGO

The highly anticipated death-defying and non-stop action adventure “Assassin’s Creed” starring Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons and Brendan Gleeson will bring the audience to an unforgettable ride in two time periods in history. 

In “Assassin’s Creed,” Michael Fassbender plays dual characters as Callum Lynch and Aguilar De Nehra.  When Lynch is brought into the Abstergo facility, having been rescued from the lethal injection on death row, he doesn’t know what to make of it. A foreboding, concrete structure with plenty of natural light, but no windows, it’s kind of a cross between a high-tech day spa and a prison. His fellow inmates are a ragtag bunch of souls who seem to struggle with their own mental faculties. And at the facility’s center, within the circular structure of an old church, lies the Animus, a device which will send Cal back in time to 15th Century Spain.

In Justin Kurzel’s big screen adaptation of the hit video game series “Assassin’s Creed,” Abstergo plays an enormous character. “It’s really the basis of the story,” notes producer Frank Marshall. “It’s where the main characters exist and work, and it houses the Animus. It’s the world we create in contemporary times.”

 

For production designer Andy Nicholson (“Gravity”), getting the design of the Abstergo facility right was the biggest challenge he faced on the production. “In real time, more than half the script happens at Abstergo,” he explains.

The key Abstergo set was constructed on the enormous 007 Stage at London’s Pinewood Studios, one of the biggest interior facilities in the world dedicated to film production. The entire complex is an uncomfortable clash between the present and the past, which reflects the strains Cal suffers when he is subjected to the regressions of his genetic memory.

With production wrapped on the 007 Stage, much of the shoot focused on the Animus chamber set, built separately at a facility in Langley, Buckinghamshire. The Animus chamber itself is the epicenter, not just of the Abstergo site, but of the clash between two worlds. With red brick walls and a mosaic tile floor, the set also houses the highly-technical Animus machine itself, while a glass-fronted observation room pokes through the upper wall with little grace or elegance.

The Animus has always played a key part in the “Assassin’s Creed” games, but it has never before been visualised like this. In the series, it is typically a chair or a bed on which subjects lie while they experience their regressions. In the film, with so much of the action cutting back to the modern period while Cal regresses into his 15th Century ancestor, Aguilar, the opportunity to imagine something grander presented itself.

Cal is attached to this robotic arm by his spine, which doesn’t just place him inside the regression, but moves his body physically in the way Aguilar moves within the simulation. Observers at Abstergo can then watch Cal move, and see what he sees with the help of holographic projections of Aguilar’s world.  “The arm is a dancing partner for Cal, and it is reading his genetic memories. It interprets them to play the movement back so it can be experienced more strongly,” explains Nicholson. “The way we’re shooting it, if he’s fighting someone you’ll see the impact from that fight in the room for real. The chance to do that is really unusual. It simply hasn’t been done before.”

 “Assassin’s Creed” opens January 8 in cinemas nationwide from 20^thCentury Fox.  Follow 20^th Century Fox (Philippines) Facebook page, 20thcenturyfoxph on YouTube and Instagram and @20centuryfoxph on Twitter.

Movies: GAME-CHANGING CINEMATIC EVENT “ASSASSIN’S CREED” OPENS IN PHIL. CINEMAS JANUARY 8

Prepare for an exhilarating ride at the movies when the game-to-movie “Assassin’s Creed” opens in Phil. cinemas on January 8 starring Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons and Brendan Gleeson.   

A game-changing cinematic event, “Assassin’s Creed” is directed by visionary filmmaker Justin Kurzel from Ubisoft’s worldwide hit franchise of the same title. Through a revolutionary technology that unlocks his genetic memories, Callum Lynch (Michael Fassbender) experiences the adventures of his ancestor, Aguilar, in 15th Century Spain.  Callum discovers he is descended from a mysterious secret society, the Assassins, and amasses incredible knowledge and skills to take on the oppressive and powerful Templar organization in the present day.

Since development began on the first “Assassin’s Creed” game, inspired by the life of Hassan-i Sabbah, a missionary who lived in 11th Century Persia, and whose followers became known as “Hashshashin”, or Assassins - the franchise has always been at the top of Ubisoft’s priority list, and since its release in 2007, there have been more than 20 games within the “Assassin’s Creed” canon, as well as comics, novels, and books.

Now, on January 8, 2017, Philippine audiences will finally get the chance to see “Assassin’s Creed” (from 20^th Century Fox) brought to life in a new film that features plenty of moments and nods that fans of the games will pick up on.

For director Justin Kurzel, transforming the world of the hit video game series “Assassin’s Creed” into a live action feature film meant putting as much effort into realizing the action of the games in real life as possible. “I could have shot it all in a parking lot and made it very CGI-heavy,” he admits, “but I thought what was really interesting was to see how we could make the audience feel as though it were possible; that these Assassins in real life could jump between buildings.”

Early on in the project he took a meeting with the stunt coordinator, Ben Cooke, to determine how much could be realized. It was Cooke who suggested bringing on Damien Walters, one of the world’s leading freerunners, to choreograph these sequences with the principal actors and the stunt team.   When they started talking about the Leap of Faith – an iconic “Assassin’s Creed” stunt series staple, in which an Assassin flings himself off a ledge, turns in mid-air and lands on his back in water or on a bale of hay – Walters revealed that he’d been planning to attempt his own, just for fun. 20ft was the height mooted by the production to attempt the leap. Walters suggested going for 120ft.

"What’s so amazing about this stuff is that you can do it,” says Kurzel. “You’re looking at an Assassin jumping off a building and going, ‘Is that possible?’ Well, we did it. I think that’s very important, especially if the film’s going to have some sense of its own identity. We’ve paid our dues to figure out how you jump from building to building, and leap and climb. What is a Leap of Faith that feels real and tangible and visceral?”

Cook notes that it was worth the effort. “It’s such an iconic part of the game that I don’t think it should be ruined with visual effects. We actually went back to the old school of stunts and doing that kind of thing for real. If you get these stunts wrong, you’re going down, but for a stunt performer, if you’re not getting scared, it’s meaningless.”

Agrees Michael Fassbender, who plays the dual roles of Callum Lynch and Aguilar de Nehra in the movie: “We did it old-school, on location, on camera. Damien doing that jump – it was so frightening. He was nervous, but I think it was very special that he did his biggest jump on our movie. I got nervous just watching him; I felt a little sick every time he was up there. I just wanted him down safe.”