‘Far Cry,’ ‘Rabbids’ and ‘Watch Dogs’ Are Getting the Big Screen Treatment

The film division of French game publisher Ubisoft plans to package “Watch Dogs,” “Far Cry” and “Rabbids” as its next trio of film projects it plans to set up in Hollywood.

Company recently packaged big screen adaptations of “Assassin’s Creed” and “Splinter Cell” at New Regency. Fox has already planted a flag on Memorial Day 2015 to release the “Assassins” film, which will star Michael Fassbender. “Splinter Cell” will star Tom Hardy. Both actors are also attached as producers. This week, Ubisoft announced that Michael Bay will develop “Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon” into a potential film franchise at Warner Bros.

In the cases of “Watch Dogs,” “Far Cry” and “Rabbids,” Ubisoft will once again maintain creative control of the projects as they’re developed into movies. That means the division, under the direction of UMP CEO Jean-Julien Baronnet, will hire screenwriters, directors, cast and choose the production shingles and studios it wants to work with. Ubisoft will finance the devleopment of the scripts.

By doing that, “no one can tell us you have to do the movie a certain way,” Baronnet said.

While “Far Cry” and “Rabbids” are already established tentpole game franchises for Ubisoft, “Watchdogs” has yet to be released. Game launches Nov. 19, but has been generating considerable buzz among the gaming community since last year’s E3.
http://variety.com/2013/film/news/ub...ve-1200496209/