Ubisoft Montreal Boss Yannis Mallat

Assassin's Creed: Lineage will be one of Ubisoft's first meaningful forays into the world of movie making when it hits the internet later this month.

Developer Ubisoft Montreal's worked closely with it's film-making team - including recently acquired special effects house Hybride - going as far as dual-casting actors for both the short films and game.

We recently sat down with Ubisoft Montreal president Yannis Mallat to talk about Assassin's Creed, upcoming motion devices and the developer's film-making future.

What does Lineage and the live-action stuff mean for Assassin's Creed? Why do it?

Mallat: We're doing it for several reasons. It's very important that we are proposing an enhanced experience for players. When you watch the movie and then play the game, you'll have a much bigger emotional impact than if you just played the game.

Because the movie puts you into the world of Giovanni - Ezio's father - and thus into the world of Ezio and his family. There's teasing of conspiracies that happen to Ezio's father and the ruined families of the Italian Renaissance. When you play the game you understand all of this and make the connections. You have a solid attachment to what happens to Ezio.

I watched the movie and played the game and then during one particular moment I was like, 'whoa'... I didn't realise myself I'd be that attached, and that's thanks to the movie.
Another reason is because the convergence strategy that we have laid out demands that we make movies to learn new things, also for making better games.

How much does the chances of doing similar live-action stuff for other games depend on the success of Lineage?

Mallat: Yeah, it's important for sure. In Assassin's Creed II you'll see for yourself that we've been listening to the fans - that I promise - and we're going to be doing that for all the products that we do including Assassin's Creed: Lineage.

Could you use these live-action shorts to bridge the gap between future Assassin's sequels?

Mallat: Probably. That is definitely not out of the question. Yes.

Ubisoft has already partnered with Peter Jackson and now it's working with James Cameron on Avatar. Are there any other movie directors you'd like to work with?

Mallat: Without being too pretentious I would welcome the reverse of the question and ask any and every good director, 'do you want to work with us?'

And going full circle, Disney's Prince of Persia movie is hitting cinemas next year. What is Ubisoft planning for the launch of that?

Mallat: You have to know that Disney has the rights for Prince of Persia and we know through Jordan [Mechner] what's going on but we're not that involved.

What does the launch of that film mean for you guys? Obviously it's going to give your game a lot of exposure...

Mallat: I can't comment actually, at the moment (laughs).

With Ubisoft now making short films and obviously owning the 300 special effects house Hyrbide, we imagine it'd be a lot more involved in an Assassin's Creed film if it happened?

Mallat: Yes definitely because - and that's an 'if' question - Assassin's Creed is a Ubisoft brand. I think that exactly what Assassin's Creed Lineage is showing is that we want to learn and we are making movies.

So again, we're not being pretentious and saying we're going to produce a long feature on Assassin's Creed tomorrow, because this is not trivial stuff. But we want to get all the benefits of learning, knowing and getting our creative staff, tools and processes to evolve.

To me the value lies more on the path to get there than having an objective. Because if we were to have an objective like producing a movie on Assassin's Creed, we could outsource that stuff. But I think we would've missed all the opportunities we are encountering now to make this convergence really meaningful.

When the two team talk together, when the IP owner Patrice Desilets and all the guys from the movie talk to the game team, then what you are producing is meaningful to the Assassin's Creed fans. That is really important.

And all the nice collateral damages that we're experiencing are only helping us make better games. I'm talking about the joint casting we did for the movie and the game, because the movie people have been doing that for more than a century now... they are 'there' in terms of quality.

And having the game people involved in the movie side... you'll see yourself by playing Assassin's Creed II that we've brought all our cinematics to a quality level that just was not the case in the first game.

Xbox 360 and PS3 motion tech is just round the corner. What will Ubisoft Monteal's strategy be? Will you upgrade existing franchises with motion controls, or create new ones as you've done for Wii?

Mallat: We're experimenting. At the end of the day what is really important is quality, that's the golden rule at Ubisoft. If using the new control devices enhances the experience, then we'll do it. Should it be new IPs, should it be our own brands. As we speak we are experimenting with that stuff.

On the flip-side, would you consider bringing Wii franchises such as Red Steel and Rabbids to the new motion devices?

Mallat: I cannot comment on that (laughs).

Ghost Recon: Predator was quietly announced in a financial release this year before slipping into 2010. What's going on there?

Mallat: For that you'll have to ask either the folks in Paris or at the studio who work on Ghost Recon. Montreal is working on a lot of brands but not this one!

Assassin's Creed II producer Sébastien Puel recently made comments about the third game possibly heading to WWII. This raises another question for us; do you have a pre-defined story arch for the series, or do you make it up as you go along? Obviously Desmond's tales is building to some sort of climax...

Mallat: That's a very good question and I'm glad you're asking it. I have no idea how [the WWII comments] happened because he didn't say that.

One, we know how to keep our secrets but two, think about it, Assassin's Creed as a brand is definitely oriented towards reliving pivotal moments in history. So along that path we may revisit some interesting moments.

Do you know where you're going to go?

Mallat: Oh yeah.

So there's a bible out there somewhere that describes how it all ends?

Mallat: Who talked about an ending? (laughs)

Andy Robinson