Game publishers are becoming more ambitious when it comes to expanding franchises beyond the realm of games, as recent films like Resident Evil: Degeneration and Dead Space: Downfall show. Now Ubisoft and Microsoft are jumping on the bandwagon, as the Los Angeles Times is reporting that short films based on both Assassin's Creed and Halo are in the works.
Assassin's Creed 2: Lineage is a trio of short films, which will serve as a prequel to the upcoming game, filling in some of the gaps by following the game's hero Ezio's father in his life as an assassin in Italy during the Renaissance. The shorts are currently in the post-production phase, and were created to tie in very closely to the game, sharing the same actors and writer.
"The film series is a part of the puzzle and there's no way we could have achieved that without making sure the story at the center was made by the script writer of the film and the game," Ubisoft Montreal's Yannis Mallat explained.
How the trilogy will be distributed remains to be seen, but according to the report a DVD compilation is a strong possibility.
Halo meanwhile, will be getting the anime treatment with a collection dubbed Halo Legends. It will feature seven films created by five notable anime studios—Bones, Casio Entertainment, Production I.G., Studio4 C, and Toei Animation. Production of the entire project will be overseen by Shinji Aramaki, who is probably best known for his work on the Appleseed films.
The project was kicked off by Microsoft's new 343 Industries, an internal team dedicated solely to the Halo franchise.
"It's a wildly varied genre, but anime creators do things with weapons and vehicle and technology nobody else does and that marries very well with Halo," 343 creative director Frank O'Connor explained. "It's amazing to see some of the new stuff they're introducing and how neatly it maps to the visual aesthetics in the Halo universe."
The first trailer for Halo Legends is expected to be revealed later today at San Diego Comic Con.
