Michael Fassbender: 'Assassin's Creed' Is Like 'The Matrix'
By Graeme McMillan
Audiences might think they know what to expect from the movie version of Assassin’s Creed, the adaptation of the popular video game franchise centering around the centuries-long struggle between forces called the Assassins and the Templars. According to star Michael Fassbender, however, the reality might bring something else entirely.
“I’ve always thought about The Matrix when we’ve approached this,” Fessbender told Empire, pointing to the franchise’s notion that descendants of the Assassins can access "ancestral memory” to give them skills and knowledge they otherwise wouldn’t possess. “This idea of DNA memory elevates it from a basic fantasy genre [piece], because you have something an audience can actually believe in. Then the journey becomes so much more elevated, because you’re on board in a different way.”
That doesn’t mean that Assassin’s Creed will resemble The Matrix in other ways, however. Don’t go looking for next generation “bullet time” in this movie, apparently.
“What is really cool is that our action sequences are on real sets and real locations,” Fassbender said, stressing the lack of CGI stunt work. “There’s very little green screen in this, which is highly unusual in these films,” he stresses. “We have stunt guys jumping across buildings in [Maltese capital] Valletta. We’ve got [stuntman] Damien Walters doing a 120-foot leap of faith, without any rope, into a bag, so it’s pretty incredible to see.”
Assassin’s Creed, directed by Justin Kurzel and co-starring Marion Cotillard, Michael K. Williams and Brendan Gleeson, will be released Dec. 21.
Related: First Look: Michael Fassbender in ‘Assassin’s Creed’
