Sony has Assassins Creed in its sights

Sony is close to landing the movie rights to Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed videogame, following a bidding war between film studios.

According to Variety, Sony is in final negotiations to tackle the big screen version of a games franchise that sees assassins in the past recover items for a secret organisation in the future.

Ubisoft - which launched UbiSoft Motion Pictures earlier this year - apparently wants to maintain creative control over the development of its games for other platforms and feels Sony is the studio to allow that.

Sony is also currently backing a number of other projects based on games, with adaptations of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and InFamous in development.

In August, Ubisoft chief Yves Guillemot told the Gamescom conference in Germany that he also wants to produce bigscreen versions of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon .

Can Assassin's Creed pull in the crowds? Even a disappointing performance by Disney's Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time , which was based on a Ubisoft game, saw that film earn $335m worldwide.

Surely an Assassin can take down a Prince?