Fassbender to star in Assassin's Creed movie

Michael Fassbender, who has starred in recent sci-fi movies Prometheus and X-Men: First Class, will take on the lead role of an as-yet unnamed assassin as Ubisoft moves to bring its Assassin's Creed franchise to the big screen.

Fassbender

"Michael Fassbender was our first choice (to play the franchise's iconic hooded hero)," Jean-Julien Baronnet, CEO of Paris-based Ubisoft Motion Pictures, said in Variety. "Michael is an extremely smart, talented, versatile and committed actor."

The plot will be similar to the games, where the character learns he is part of a long line of assassins and has been kidnapped by a Templar organization to recover lost artifacts. With each new game having a different hero, it is quite possible Fassbender will play a brand new assassin and not Ezio, Altair, Desmond, or Conner.

Fassbender will also co-produce the film with Conor McCaughan. Ubisoft will develop the film independently, and is still looking for a writer and director. No word yet on who will distribute the film, although Ubisoft was in talks with Sony Pictures as early as October 2011 before those negotiations stalled.