The European boss of gaming giant Ubisoft has played down the amount of money the upcoming Michael Fassbender-starring adaptation of Assassin's Creed will make for the company, saying the purpose of the film is to bring more people to the game.
Due in cinemas on December 26, the big screen spin-off sees Academy Award nominee Fassbender play Callum Lynch, a man who discovers that an ancestor of his was an assassin in 15th-century Spain. He then embarks on a mission to defeat their enemies, the Templars, in the present day.
The film reunites Fassbender with Macbeth director Justin Kurzel and co-star Marion Cotillard and also stars Brendan and Brian Gleeson. Fassbender is among the producers on Assassin's Creed and is reported to be onboard for a sequel, should the movie prove to be a hit.
But in an interview with video game trade publication MCV, Alain Corre, Ubisoft's EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) boss, said that box office success was not the biggest factor for his company.
"We are not going to earn a lot of money from [Assassin's Creed]," he said. "Although we will make some money, it is not the purpose of this movie. The purpose is to bring Assassin's Creed to more people."
"We have our core fans, but what we would like is to put this franchise in front of a lot more people, who, maybe, will end up playing the next Assassin's Creed game," Corre added.
In an interview with gaming website IGN earlier this year, Fassbender stressed that the film would have its own identity.
"There's so much cool stuff in the game, that we're actually spoiled for choice in terms of what we can use and what we can't, but we also want to bring new elements to it and perhaps our own version of things that already exist in the game," he said.
"But we're definitely making a feature film, and we're approaching it as a feature film, as opposed to approaching it as a video game. So I'm really excited about it, and we're working very hard to make sure that we've got the best and most exciting, original package."
Marion Cotillard and Michael Fassbender in Assassin's Creed
