It’s first attempt, Assassin’s Creed, may not have managed to break the video game adaptation curse, but that certainly hasn’t deterred Ubisoft from dusting itself down and giving the green light to two further projects in a Child of Light live-action TV series and a Werewolves Within movie.
As Variety reports, both projects are products of Ubisoft’s inaugural Women’s Film and Television Fellowship, a program designed to “illuminate female voices within the entertainment industry”.
Tasha Huo and Mishna Wolff were chosen as the first two recipients of the Fellowship, and were granted access to Ubisoft’s library of properties. Opting for Child of Light and Werewolves Within respectively, Huo and Wolff then spent six months working with Ubisoft’s film and television development teams before pitching their projects to Ubisoft Motion Pictures.
“There are so many stories you could find in their library,” said Huo. “There were other genres that did interest me, but my wish was to adapt Child of Light. We love that the game centers around Aurora discovering strength. I love video games and I’m passionate about them, but you want people who have never heard of these games to fall in love with them.”
“When I first came to Ubisoft there was another one I was interested in,” stated Wolff. “But Werewolves Within kept gnawing at me. It kept popping into my head. It was just demanding I tell a story.”
“We were so thrilled with the outcome of this fellowship, it is exactly what we wanted,” added Margaret Boykin, director of film development at Ubisoft. “We were so lucky to work with these two women.”
Both projects now have script deals, and join a slate of upcoming projects at Ubisoft Motion Pictures which include Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon and Rabbids feature films, as well as an as-yet-untitled live-action comedy series set up at Apple.