French actress Ariane Labed, best known to American audiences for her supporting role in 2013’s Before Midnight, is joining Michael Fassbender in the big-screen adaptation of Assassin’s Creed, an announcement consistent with the casting of “classy actors” Fassbender and Marion Cotillard. Directed by Justin Kurzel, who directed Fassbender and Cotillard in the upcoming Macbeth and helmed the Australian serial-killer noir Snowtown Murders, the film’s producers still seem committed to proving it’s possible to make a video game movie that has prestige. (Or at least prove it’s possible to make one that doesn’t totally suck.)
For the uninitiated, the Assassin’s Creed franchise tells the historical struggle between two groups, the Assassins and the Knights Templar, with the professional killers as the heroes of the story. Fassbender would presumably play a character based on Desmond, a central figure in the first few games. After discovering that he is part of a lineage of Assassins, Desmond naturally uses computers to virtually travel back through time and relive the thrilling memories of his ancestors murdering Templars, their helper-jerks, and the occasional bystander. We’re not sure if the film version of Assassin’s Creed will retain the franchise’s signature swan dives into hay stacks from ridiculous heights, but considering this is a prestige picture, the chances are pretty good.
If you can’t wait until December 21, 2016 to see Michael Fassbender crush his enemies with the power of technology in Assassin’s Creed, you can watch him do sort of the same thing this October, when he plays the titular Apple founder in Steve Jobs. Just don’t expect a lot of prestigious historical slaughter, unless you count the demise of Lisa.