Ubisoft puts focus on gaming community with its slate of film and TV projects
Adapting established and lesser-known franchises, the developer shines a spotlight on the gaming community
From “Pokémon Detective Pikachu,” which pulled in $¦©© million globally in ¡, to “Sonic the Hedgehog,” which grossed $©¡.ª million worldwide last year before the pandemic shut down theaters, the message is clear: Gamers and nongamers alike are looking to explore their favorite video game characters and narratives in different mediums.
Gaming developers are getting in on the action as well, forming production arms to work with networks and Hollywood studios to build on their established franchises. Launched by Sony Interactive in ¡, Playstation Prods. is developing a star-studded series based on its hit game “The Last of Us” with HBO. Acti-vision Blizzard Studios was working on a film series based on its biggest IP, “Call of Duty,” although director Stefano Sollima said in an interview last year that after several delays, the project was “in limbo.”
Ubisoft Film & Television, a subsidiary of game publisher Ubisoft, is taking a different approach. It’s producing upcoming adaptations of its most popular franchises, such as a movie based on “Tom Clancy’s The Division” starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain and an “Assassin’s Creed” TV series, both at Netflix. But it’s also taking on projects that draw on the larger gaming community, tapping into a desire to see stories that are universal — whether you are into gaming or not.
“Senior Esports,” a TV series in development, is based on a ¡ Wall Street Journal article about a group of senior citizens who aim to take on the youth-dominated world of competitive gaming. Apple TV Plus’ “Mythic Quest,” which invites viewers inside the often eccentric process and personalities behind video game development, wraps its second season on June . “‘Mythic Quest’ is a show that takes place in a video game studio, but at the same time, it’s a show about a modern workplace,” says Jason Altman, head of film and television at Ubisoft.
“The throughline for all of our projects is that they’re smart, they’re quality and they’re unexpected content with broad appeal that are accessible to gamers and nongamers alike,” says Margaret Boykin, director of film development at Ubisoft, who cites a report from the Entertainment Software Assn. that found that more than ¦ million people in the U.S. play video games one hour or more per week.
While Ubisoft is banking on its most famous names — like the “Assassin’s Creed” series and two just-announced anime series based on “Far Cry” at Netflix — it’s also taking chances on its lesser-known titles. Horror comedy “Werewolves Within,” which debuted at the Tribeca Festival and hits theaters on June , is the first project that Ubisoft Film & TV has independently produced and financed; it’s based on a little-known VR game of the same name. Boykin acknowledges that it’s “far from what I think people think of as classic Ubisoft IP.” But when Mishna Wolff, a candidate from Ubisoft’s Women’s Film & Television Fellowship, pitched the idea, the company wanted to explore the possibilities — even if “Werewolves Within” wasn’t the most bankable name in its library.
“It was about supporting someone’s creative vision and giving them a place to explore an idea that was unexpected but really smart,” Boykin says. “[Wolff] just had such a smart pitch, and we all felt like we wanted to see where it could go, and we loved the script that it turned into.”
Danielle Kreinik, head of television development at Ubisoft, says the company strives to make its series accessible to everyone, whether fans of the original IP or not. “We really think of our TV series and films as another doorway for people to enter,” she says. “There really is no baseline of knowledge that they have to have coming in,” she adds, citing HBO’S megahit “Game of Thrones.” “Not everybody read the books, but when you really enjoy the characters, you enjoy the world. You’re gonna go back and spend more time in it.”