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Ubisoft Launches Movie Studio To Make Movies of Its Games

Posted by Soulskill on from the can't-wait-for-the-drm dept.

Variety reports that Ubisoft, the game studio behind Assassin's Creed, the Tom Clancy games and the recent Prince of Persia titles, has launched Ubisoft Motion Pictures for the purpose of turning its game franchises into TV and movie franchises. "Ubisoft's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was brought to the bigscreen by Jerry Bruckheimer, with Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead. The 2010 pic grossed about $335 million worldwide. The publisher started expanding its reach in 2007, when it launched Ubisoft Digital Arts, a computer animation studio, which created Avatar's ground-breaking 3D vidgame. A year later, it acquired Montreal-based visual effects house Hybride Technologies."

21 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. A good sign? by Chardansearavitriol · · Score: 2

    It seems almost obvious really -- why would anyone trust their game>movie experience to an outside group? Having the game makers and designers working on it can only improve what has been, for quite some time, a really awful form of movie. At the same time though, I'm reminded of the mario bros. movie, which I actually like. There was no way they could translate mario into a sane movie, and It was a bad and obvious choice. I fear we may see much more of this, since the differences between the mediums are so huge. That or all our games will become like movies. But that terrifies me so I refuse to acknowledge it.

    1. Re:A good sign? by exomondo · · Score: 2

      Having the game makers and designers working on it can only improve what has been, for quite some time, a really awful form of movie.

      Mainly because of Uwe Bol.

    2. Re:A good sign? by Darinbob · · Score: 2

      I read the headline and face palmed myself so hard I passed out.

    3. Re:A good sign? by Sulphur · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I read the headline and face palmed myself so hard I passed out.

      Had you used face palm oil, then your hand would have slid off harmlessly.

    4. Re:A good sign? by mwvdlee · · Score: 2

      Uwe-Bol-isoft?

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    5. Re:A good sign? by thetoadwarrior · · Score: 2

      Have you seen the quality of stories / writing that comes out of games? Publishers aren't exactly capable of filtering out shit.

    6. Re:A good sign? by tripleevenfall · · Score: 2

      Making big, dumb Bruckheimer movies isn't really an improvement.

  2. New Ubisoft theater requirements by fox171171 · · Score: 4, Funny

    When you go to the theater you have to get RFID chipped, and if the scanners lose the internet connection, the movie won't play.

  3. A common mistake ... by perpenso · · Score: 2

    Having the game makers and designers working on it can only improve what has been, for quite some time, a really awful form of movie.

    Game development and movie development are different skills, one is long duration interactive entertainment and the other is short duration passive entertainment. You seem to be making a very common mistake, assuming great talent in one area translates to great talent in another area. Whatever comes second, the movie adapted from the game or the game adapted from the movie, is usually inferior because of the budgeting and scheduling. Ie the constraints imposed on the development team and not necessarily the ability of the development team.

    1. Re:A common mistake ... by Animats · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Game development and movie development are different skills, one is long duration interactive entertainment and the other is short duration passive entertainment.

      True. However, the game-to-movie direction today has more promise than the movie-to-game direction. Games made from movie franchises tend to be track rides - you will follow the plot. On the other hand, a free-play game provides known characters and settings on which a screenwriter can build a plot - even when the game barely has one. ("Prince of Persia" comes to mind.)

    2. Re:A common mistake ... by ciderbrew · · Score: 2

      I think they'll have a lot of talent at being able to use tools for all the previs work. Every bit could be blocked out in a game engine and tested over and over. If they get a director sitting over someone's shoulder and allow the DP to do his job I think they could get some good work done.
      It will still be shite as stories from games just don't need telling, they need playing!

  4. Learned nothing from Square Pictures? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Not to mention movies made out of video games tend to not fare well anyway.

  5. 'Myst' movie is in the works by Frans+Faase · · Score: 2

    A 'Myst' movie is already in the works. It will not be primarily be based on one of the games, but one of the novels, and its provisory title is "Myst: The Book of Ti’ana". For more information, see mystmovie.com.

  6. How convenient by Guspaz · · Score: 2

    How convenient, Ubisoft's largest studio happens to be in a city equipped for major motion picture production, Montreal. A city that can fill in both for European and American cities, with major sound stages and VFX companies.

  7. Great - I Can Avoid A Whole Class Of Movies by rally2xs · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As a moviegoer that "sees everything that is not too dumb for words" I avoid movies that have anything to do with videogames because, so far, they universally suck. There's nothing remotely believable about the movies, the are all computer video effects and no real story that makes much of any sense. Everything is simply game-play on the screen, and I don't get to have any fun with it.

    Coming in a close second is "movies having anything to do with existent toys", which would mean things like the transformer series. Saw a trailer for the upcoming transformers movie last night. Nope, gonna miss that one, too.

    Wanna sell me a movie ticket? Tell me a story, preferably with MOVIE STARS in it, not some bozo I've never heard of before that, incidentally, doesn't know squat about acting. Last night's movie for me was Fast Five. At least we have a star or 2, and some fun car chases. Yeah, its terminally stupid, too, but at least fun to look at.

    Best movie in the theater at the moment? The Conspirator. Now, THAT tells a story. Water for Elephants, 2nd best, and ditto, tells a story.

    Surprisingly, the comic book series have proved very entertaining, although any new movie having anything to do with anything from DC comics is getting a pass as long as the writers think that Superman should somehow be ashamed of being a US citizen, and wishes to renounce that citizenship. They can all go pound sand...

    1. Re:Great - I Can Avoid A Whole Class Of Movies by MemoryDragon · · Score: 2

      Yes thats really weird, the cutscenes of the games usually are better movies than the movies based on video games. I guess this is due to the fact that the game creators care about the stories they want to tell while Hollywood only cares about cashing in on a name and thinks they can shove everything down the throat to their supposed 12 year old target audience. Hollywood has not gotten the clue that the majority of the people who play those games are in between 20 and 35.
      I have not even remotely cared about the PoP movie once I saw that Bruckheimer was directing it, they probably butchered anything Mechner had written for the movie to death before releasing it.
      It also was kind of interesting to see how bad the Tomb Raider movies had been, there was a chance to make another indiana jones style movie they blew it big time and those were some of the better adaptions.

    2. Re:Great - I Can Avoid A Whole Class Of Movies by Andy+Smith · · Score: 2

      "I avoid movies that have anything to do with videogames because, so far, they universally suck"

      Silent Hill.

    3. Re:Great - I Can Avoid A Whole Class Of Movies by Nidi62 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Wanna sell me a movie ticket? Tell me a story, preferably with MOVIE STARS in it, not some bozo I've never heard of before that, incidentally, doesn't know squat about acting.

      One of the last few movies that Ive seen for the first time recently had absolutely no one I had ever heard of, and it was probably one of the best movies I have ever seen. The movie was Winter's Bone. It shows that having a big name star in a movie does not make the movie good; in many cases, the big name actor either overshadows everything else, or simply plays every character exactly the same, without even subtle changes from film to film.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    4. Re:Great - I Can Avoid A Whole Class Of Movies by glwtta · · Score: 2

      Water for Elephants, 2nd best, and ditto, tells a story.

      Ah, I see, you don't mind if a movie is shit, as long as it's pretentious.

      --
      sic transit gloria mundi
    5. Re:Great - I Can Avoid A Whole Class Of Movies by tlhIngan · · Score: 2

      The thing is, videogames and movies serve two different purposes. A videogame serves to entertain, either solo or alone.

      A movie's purpose is NOT to entertain. Instead, it's purpose is to put asses in seats.

      Those two differences in purpose, while not typically mutually exclusive, do come to be at odds very often. If it's a game, typically the one that leads to more entertainment wins. If it's a movie, though, the result that will put more asses in seats will generally win out.

      After all, we have summer blockbusters that make tons of money but plots consisting of not more than a couple of words, main characters thinner than tissue in depth, and plot holes that serve as a structural element.

      It's why all media adaptations are hard. Each medium has a different sort of expectation to it. A videogame has different pacing than that of a book (e.g., a book can go in-depth into character development and past history for chapters - videogames can't or you bore the audience). A book has different requirements compared to a movie (ditto). Etc. It's very difficult to do any sort of adaptation - at best all you can do is try to make each medium complementary to each other.

      The other thing is, well, the audience makeup varies and media overlaps don't tend to be very big. Sure a videogame can be made into a movie, but the audience seeing the movie alone is bigger than the audience seeing the movie after playing the game.

      It's not easy, and requires a lot of skill. It's why Marvel Studios started doing independent productions (Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Hulk, and now Thor). Or something like how Microsoft has to set up a group to manage its Halo property (besides several successful games, they've got bestselling books and some popular comics and other licensed materials, and probably why the movie kept getting cancelled).

  8. Re:Have they learned nothing... by RogueyWon · · Score: 2

    Sadly, yes. The Resident Evil series has been an absolute cash-cow (though I suspect it's a bit milked-out now) - they may be dreadful movies, but they've been effectively pitched and marketed.

    The Silent Hill movie also did ok, grossing $97m worldwide on a $50m budget (according to wikipedia). That said, Silent Hill was, while by no means great, at the better end of the scale for a video game adaptation - and here in the UK, it was marketed more as a "normal" horror film than as a video game adaptation. I certainly know people who went to see it at the cinema or bought the DVD without actually knowing it was based on a game.