Justin Kurzel to Direct Michael Fassbender in 'Assassin's Creed'

The partnership between Michael Fassbender and director Steve McQueen has helped catapult them both into the Hollywood elite, earning the filmmaker a Best Picture win for 12 Years a Slave and Fassbender an Oscar nomination. And now it seems as if Fassbender is going to help launch his Macbeth director Justin Kurzel into stardom, as well.

Kurzel will take on his first blockbuster in Assassin's Creed, based on the hit UbiSoft video game. Fassbender takes on the lead role of Desmond Miles, a bartender kidnapped by a shady corporation and forced to to use the "Animus", a device that allows him to relive the memories of his ancestor, Altair, an assassin with knowledge of hidden artifacts.

Kurzel's taking a big step from Macbeth or his breakthrough film, Snowtown, and it will be interesting to see what he does with a bigger sandbox to play in. Assassin's Creed is due to hit theaters on August 7th 2015. [Deadline]

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Michael Fassbender to produce and star in 'Assassin's Creed' adaptation

It was last October we learned that Ubisoft was negotiating with Sony Pictures to put together a film adaptation of their popular video game, Assassin's Creed. Well, those talks didn't turn out so well for various reasons, and Ubisoft decided to do the smart thing and just finance the film themselves. It makes sense, as they retain total creative control and gear the film for what they know their audience wants. And what does every audience want right now? More Michael Fassbender.

Variety reports that the red hot actor, who is currently working on Steve McQueen's Twelve Years a Slave, has signed on to star and co-produce the film. The first Assassin's Creed game followed a bartender named Desmond Miles, who discovers that he comes from a long line of assassins. Captured by a secret corporation who are basically a front for the Knights Templar, Miles is repeatedly sent back through time and into the body of other assassins in order to steal valuable objects of historical significance. His first jump put him into the body of Altaïr ibn La'Ahad, who was an assassin who lived during the time of the Crusades. It's unclear whether Fassbender would play Desmond, Altair, or maybe even a character from one of the other games.

We don't know what Ubisoft has planned yet, but clearly the goal is to make this into a franchise. They couldn't have found a better way to do that than by securing Fassbender, who has his pick of pretty much any role he wants. High profile directors will probably be lining up to take on this film now, but as of this point there isn't even a writer attached. Fassbender has a ton of stuff coming up, and things could change quickly considering we're probably a long ways off from seeing this film hit screens.

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