Ubisoft Launching Dedicated Film Studio For Game Adaptations

Ubisoft has created a new division dedicated to adapting its game franchises for film and TV, according to a report from Variety. The Paris-based Ubisoft Motion Pictures will be headed by former Europacorp CEO Jean-Julien Baronnet, according to the report, with former Walt Disney Studios France executive Jean de Rivieres heading marketing and promotion. The major game publisher has shown interest in movie making since at least 2007, when it first announced plans to open a CGI film studio in Montreal. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot told an Edinburgh Interactive Festival audience later that year that by "creating movies and games at the same time, we see what we have to improve to make better games as well." In 2008 the company acquired special effects house Hybride, which did work on movies including 300 and Sin City. Ubisoft worked closely with movie industry mogul James Cameron in developing the game based on 2009's smash film hit Avatar. That title went on to underperform expectations, an outcome Guillemot chalked up partly to bad release timing. The 2010 Disney-produced movie based on Ubisoft's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time became the silver screen's top-grossing game adaptation of all time, bringing in roughly $335 million worldwide, according to Variety.