Aussie director Kurzel’s ‘leap of faith’ in Assassin’s Creed
SYDNEY— The most compelling reason that made Australian filmmaker Justin Kurzel direct Assassin’s
Creed was the opportunity of “working with Michael again.”
He was referring to Hollywood actor Michael Fassbender who isn’t just the lead star, but also the co-producer and co-writer of the big-screen adaptation of the hugely-popular video game series of the same name.
“I feel quite humbled and moved to be entrusted with something so big and large,” the soft-spoken 42-year-old director told The STAR during a recent presser for the film, which boasts of a stellar casting and lavish budget, in his home country sometime November last year.
“He trusted me to make the film but at the same time, he had very strong ideas and thoughts about it... It was a collaboration,” Kurzel added. Assassin’s Creed rolled into Philippine cinemas just this week, from 20th Century Fox.
The action-adventure tells of Callum Lynch, a death-row convict who is a descendant of Aguilar de Nerha, a member of a secret society of assassins during the Spanish Inquisition. Both get “connected,” with Callum reliving the experiences of his forebears through a “time travel-like” technology called Animus Project that accesses centuries-old memories by way of DNA. The “motive” behind it is to find a cure for violence.
Callum then finds himself in the center of a long-drawn battle that spans from the 15th century to present day between two powerful sects — the Assassins who advocate free will and the Templars who want order and control.
Fassbender alternately plays Callum and Aguilar in the film that shifts between ancient and present times.
Thanks to Fassbender also, Kurzel got hooked on Assassin’s Creed. “At first, I wasn’t familiar with the game then I became very familiar with it,” after he was introduced to the video game creator Ubisoft and its loyal community.
“I got hooked to the idea of it, being an assassin and fighting for free will and railing against control and the Templars,” he said. “I just thought the ideologies in it were interesting.”
Assassin’s Creed marked the second time Kurzel has directed Fassbender. The first one was in Macbeth (2015) with Marion Cotillard, who also stars in Assassin’s Creed as the scientist Sophia Rikkin, creator of the Animus Project that’s run by the present-day Templars.
Kurzel recalled how it was like working with the two for the first time in Macbeth. “The first time, I was really scared and intimidated by how amazing the two were. I thought they were freaks of nature with their acting.”
He added, “It was very different in Macbeth in that it was very intimate, just the three of us, and with those two on the screen all the time. It was intense. And it was an intense time, it was winter and we were in Scotland at that time.”
As for Assassin’s Creed and for a film with such size, “you can’t afford to be nimble; you have to help steer it towards one vision… (and you) have many other responsibilities,” Kurzel said, adding that dealing with Fassbender the producer is very different from working with Fassbender the actor.
As for the Oscar-winning French star, he related, “I knew I wanted Marion to be on the film — (we needed) someone sophisticated, who has that dignity but could be naive but not stupid in kind of wanting to cure violence by using science. Then she kind of realizes she’s being betrayed in some way, so I felt Marion could effortlessly embody that.”
He said that with the video game’s millions of fans, there’s definitely pressure to please them but “it’s all about respecting the game” and imbibing the spirit and essence of it.
To make the film version different at the same time worthy of the gamers’ adulation, they reduced the CGI and visual effects, and employed more real action — from rooftop chases to a smorgasbord of fight sequences. “We did on screen what’s humanly possible from the video game.”
This included the 120-ft. “Leap of Faith” that showed Aguilar jumping off the Seville Cathedral, which was executed to perfection by stuntman Damien Walters.
How did they convince him to do it, which apparently was his first time ever?
“We had to convince him to stop,” Kurzel said with a laugh, as he looked out the hotel window and pointed out a multi-story luxury liner docked at the Sydney Harbour to stress how much height the “Leap of Faith” took.
These guys are after all adrenaline junkies. They thrive in experiences deemed by others as impossible.
Aside from being the stuff leaps of faith are made of, having the mindset that believes anything can be possible is what Kurzel thinks makes Australian directors and actors do well in Hollywood.
“I think we’re very curious. I think since we’re so far from the world — you know it’s quite an isolated place — I think we’ve always had this adventure instinct in us. We’ve always wanted to know, what’s beyond the shores?” he said. “We seem to kind of pop up everywhere ( laughs) because we’re very curious about the rest of the world and also because we don’t have a very strong class system here. I think, we all think everything is possible no matter which family we’re born into.”
Kurzel found his way into filmmaking by creating music clips for the band of his brother, Jed Kurzel, who also scored the music of Assassin’s
Creed. “So, I was doing music clips for him and really loved it and enjoyed it. I got into making more and then got into making short films. Then, I started directing commercials.”
He studied filmmaking “for 12 months, not very long. I mean the best study is doing it and understanding it by experiencing it.”
Kurzel further revealed that “I’ve always loved films. I grew up in a country town (in Adelaide), very close to where my very first film was set. There was one cinema in town.
“In Australia, when it’s summer, it’s 40 degrees and everyone wants to stay inside. And going into a black cinema, in that darkness experiencing all these new worlds and exotic characters, it was pretty transforming in my life.”
One cinematic experience that made quite an impact on him early on was watching Steven Spielberg’s
Jaws. “My earliest experience of the power of cinema where it stayed with you and terrified you when you watched it was Jaws. When I watched the film, I truly understood the power of cinema. I was really young then. I mean, I still don’t go out quite far in the water ( laughs).
“It’s all got to do with the point of view of that film, how it was directed. It was probably instilled in me, from an early age watching that film, that cinema is such a powerful thing and I kind of wanted more from it. I wanted to be involved in it.”
Interestingly, there seems to be a common thread that links his earliest film experience to the three fulllength feature films he has done so far, beginning with his debut Snowtown about a real-life Australian serial killer. Followers of his work note his interest in violence and brutality as movie themes.
When queried more about it, Kurzel said, “I’m much more aware that I’ve been attracted to films that focus on violence or that violence is somehow part of it. There must be something there. I have not consciously thought about it but I’m definitely interested in what makes people violent, what makes people kind of lean towards darkness? Having said that, I’m really interested in finding a comedy or something else next ha,ha,ha.”