In case you tuned out somewhere during James Cameron’s 180 minute diatribe on Ubisoft’s newfound cohesion with the medium of filmmaking… THIS is what the guy was talking about. And yeah, it’s pretty badass:

Titled Assassin’s Creed: Lineage, the film stars ACII’s protagonist, Ezio, and sets the stage for all the necessary violence about to go down in 15th century Florence. The first of three short films will hit the YouTubes on October 27th, and it’s a safe bet the rest will unspool in a timely manner coinciding with Assassin’s Creed II’s November 17th release date.

We caught a glimpse of the this wildly ambitious, hyper synergistic short film that concentrates on the events leading up to those of the game during our trip to play Assassin’s Creed II, and we dug it quite a bit. Call it enhanced marketing if you must, but Lineage is certainly an interesting milestone, if only because it’s pretty much the opposite of every game-to-film adaptation you’ve ever seen. Other than Ezio, every live-action actor is also the physical and vocal basis for the characters you’ll actually encounter in the game, AND the environments are digitally authentic to the ones you’ll be scaling this November (albeit slightly enhanced, so as not to look like a SyFy original).

Either way, we’ll keep you posted on the cinematic shenanigans. And check back later this week for our Assassin’s Creed II preview!

Oct 19, 2009