The first trailer for 20th Century Fox's Assassin's Creed movie didn't give away much in the way of plot, but it did showcase something that was incredibly important to the creative team behind the movie: the fighting style.
During an October visit to the set of Assassin's Creed, a frequent refrain was that a key part of getting the adaptation of the hit Ubisoft games right was nailing the fights. That involved bringing on stunt coordinator Ben Cook and parkour runner Damien Walters to make sure these sequences were done right and real.
"Assassin's Creed is about human feat," said director Justin Kurzel. "It's not about superheroes. It was kind of how can we celebrate what is possible. It was pretty amazing in Malta seeing people jump off buildings that are four stories, five stories high, making some pretty significant jumps. We're hoping to have that sort of flavor flow through the film."
Much of the movie's action set pieces take place in the past, when Michael Fassbender's character Callum is sent through the Animus to 15th century Spain. Those sequences — like the chase scene in the trailer that Cook praises as one of the most impressive in the film — were shot in Malta, and people (both stunts people and the actors) would film the fights and chases on tops of rooftops in the city.
To emphasize the fact the scenes were done practically, Kurzel would linger on a shot before cutting away to prove to the audience that what they are seeing is actually happening in front of them. Instead of using quick edits to piece together a fight scene, he would have the stunts take place in front of the camera.
"We've tried to keep everything in-camera to try to keep it as real as possible and to give it a genuine feel," said Cook. "We stayed away from creating CGI digital worlds, although there's obviously a time and place for that. We're trying to keep everything — all the parkour and everything like that — [as real]."
Star and producer Michael Fassbender embraced the challenge of the stunts, but he also didn't have much of a choice. When Kurzel first started conceiving the movie, he imagined he would want to keep Fassbender's face obscured behind his hood when he was playing Assassin Aguilar. But when it came time to shoot the movie, he realized it was better to see Aguilar's face.
"It's a really interesting thing of wanting to take away the mystery of the character a little bit, of the Assassin, and just bring him to life through Michael's face and through his performance," he said.
Because of that, Fassbender had to be a part of all of his fight sequences. "He has to be involved in everything because we have to see his face," said Cook. "The audience is now savvy. You can't trick them, so you have to include a lot of training and the sort of stuff that's involved with doing it on location."
So when he fights multiple people at the same time, or fights himself (present day Callum vs. 15th century Aguilar), or does the Leap of Faith, know that Fassbender wasn't solely relying on a stuntman.
"It's trying to find a nice balance between the [fighting and story], trying to find a psychological piece mixed in with the fun action ride and to try and elevate both those elements," he said of why getting the fights right was so important. "Hopefully they sing along with one another."
Callum/Aguilar isn't the only Assassin who is going to be showing off in the movie. There are about five or so being held by Abstergo, and Cook designed each of their fighting styles to have their own characteristics and personality. He took a mishmash of fighting techniques from the Assassin's Creed games and real-life martial arts — plus a healthy dash of parkour — to conceive the fight choreography in the film. Similarly, the Templars have their own unique fighting style compared to the Assassins.
The Assassins will all be using their own specific sets of weapons as well. Each is equipped with the requisite wrist blades, and has a second weapon as well. Aguilar, for instance, always has a collection of throwing knives, smoke bombs and flash bombs in addition to his wrist blades; also, in a move that seems to be inspired by the games, he always picks up his second weapon off of enemies he defeats.
Fassbender wanted Aguilar's fight style to be about close range, so he frequently uses stealth and fights in close combat. Because Fassbender hadn't played any Assassin's Creed games before signing on to the project, he turned to them after he was cast to learn the rhythmn of the fights.
"I wanted to keep it quite beautiful, the movements," he said. "I didn't really want them to be so staccato. I wanted to have a flow to them, so the game helped with that."
Assassin's Creed hits theaters on December 21st, 2016.
References
- ^ Terri Schwartz (people.ign.com)
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