Looks like another blockbuster video game franchise is heading to the big screen… don’t act so surprised! Sony Pictures has reportedly won a major bidding war to adapt Ubisoft’s popular Assassin’s Creed series into a movie, adding it to their slate of upcoming video game flicks that includes both Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and inFamous. The game is described as a “historical actioner” although it also has sci-fi elements since the main protagonist Desmond Miles is forced to live through his ancestral history using a virtual reality simulator known as the Animus. The first game is set in Jerusalem during the Middle Ages, while the next two moved to Italy during the Renaissance. The fourth game in the series, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, hits stores on November 15th.

This announcement is a little bit unexpected in a way because Ubisoft just recently launched Ubisoft Motion Pictures, a division dedicated to turning their various properties into movies and TV shows. It would appear that they are wisely trying to partner up with bigger entertainment companies while also maintaining creative control. Ubisoft previously produced three live action short films based on the game called Assassin’s Creed: Lineage that were released on YouTube.

I am curious to see if they maintain the sci-fi thread used to frame the stories or if they will simply make it a straightforward historic epic in the vein of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. While it was a pretty clever idea for a video game, it might seem a bit convoluted for to moviegoers… then again, if they want to turn this into a movie franchise, I suppose it would make the most sense to keep it intact. Are you excited about a big budget Assassin’s Creed movie? Who would you like to see direct?