The Assassin's Creed movie has a writer, according to The Hollywood Reporter, and that writer is Michael Lesslie. Who you've probably never heard of.

He wrote a big play in London called Prince of Denmark, as well as a few short films. And... that's about it for this.

Frank Marshall will produce Assassin’s Creed, the co-production between New Regency and Ubisoft that has Michael Fassbender attached to star. This comes after Basil Iwanyk boarded the other vidgame transfer between these companies, Splinter Cell. That project has Tom Hardy starring and Eric Singer writing the script.

Has the upcoming big screen adaptation of Assassin's Creed found its director? Though nothing has firmed up just yet there is persistent talk that the film's producers and backer 20th Century Fox have zeroed in on Swedish director Daniel Espinosa to take the helm.

Espinosa originally burst on to the Hollywood radar with his 2010 Swedish action thriller Snabba Cash (Easy Money), a massive international hit which led to Espinosa taking the helm of Ryan Reynolds / Denzel Washington hit Safe House while also launching its Swedish star Joel Kinnaman - now known for the US version of The Killing and soon to be on screens as the lead in RoboCop - to Hollywood stardom.

Currently scheduled for 2015 release Assassin's Creed should be gearing up soon with Michael Fassbender attached to star and produce.

Michael Fassbender Poised To Re-Team With ‘Macbeth’ Helmer On ‘Assassin’s Creed’
By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday April 29, 2014 @ 10:31am PDT

EXCLUSIVE: New Regency and Ubisoft are in talks with Justin Kurzel to direct Assassin’s Creed, the live action adaptation of the Ubisoft video game that has Michael Fassbender attached to star.

Kurzel isn’t a household name in the action arena just yet, but he and Fassbender just came off Macbeth. They wrapped that Weinstein Company film, with Fassbender in the title role, and the actor must have really liked what he saw. No deal yet, but they are eager to get this film started, so it’ll come soon.

Our window on the Assassin’s Creed movie has gone a bit dark recently. Last we heard officially was that Justin Kurzel will be directing and that Michael Fassbender remains on board as both the star and a powerful driving force behind the project. Fassbender has recently been asked about the film but besides some vague promise to honour the games, he told us nothing new.

Well, if he’s not going to open up, I guess we’ll have to come in the back way. Thanks to some of our well-placed sources I’ve been able to verify a number of new details on the film they’re putting together.

For those not in the know, Assassin’s Creed is a video game franchise from Ubisoft. The games follow several characters across the past and the present, their story lines linked together thanks to a device called The Animus, a device that can read an individual’s DNA and directly access the subject’s memories.

In the games, The Animus is usually used to find secret artefacts that might tip the balance in a millennia long war between Assassins and Templars. Part of each game takes place in a particular segment of history, from a Pirate-laden Caribbean to Renaissance Italy.

I was particularly curious as to which game the movie would adapt. According to my sources, however, the screenplay is being built around a largely new story.

I’ve learned hat Michael Fassbender will play two roles in the film. In the present-day sections he will be Michael Lynch, a death row inmate who becomes pawn in the Assassins-Templars war; while in the segments set in the past, he will be Aguilar de Agarorobo, an assassin during the Spanish Inquisition. Both this time period and location are so far unexplored by the main games in the series.

In the present day scenes, Michael will be subject to tests by researcher called Joseph who is a bit of a baddie. Michael won’t be totally on his own, though, as he’ll be helped by a female Assassin named Lara. And it seems likely that whoever gets cast in that role will also show up in the past sections as another character, presumably one of Lara’s ancestors.

There’s one idea that’s similar to Assassin’s Creed 2, where protagonist Ezio Auditore’s father was an important member of the assassin’s creed. This time, Aguilar’s father will be an assassin chief.

Speaking of Assassin’s Creed 2, the chief bad guy in the movie going to be Tomas de Torquemada. Interestingly this isn’t the first time this historical figure has turned up in the Assassin’s Creed franchise having appeared in an offshoot, the iOS and Nintendo DS spin-off Assassin’s Creed 2: Discovery. In that game, de Torquemada was working under Rodrigo Borgia, the main antagonist of Assassin’s Creed 2. Whether the movie will take this lesser known game as canon is currently unclear from the information at hand.

The boss bad guy in the present day will be Alan Rikkan, CEO of Abstergo, the corporate front for the evil Templars. At the moment, the plan is for him to appear in voice over only, which is not unlike the games where Rikkan has so been a fairly ambiguous force.

My guess is that the film will be set in the same universe and concurrent to the games, but will also take cues from earlier entries. I’ve already explained the ties to Assassin’s Creed 2, but the present day storyline seems like it might be a riff on the story of the first game.

In that game the protagonist was Desmond Miles, just a bartender before getting kidnapped by Abstergo. He had a villain researcher trying to access his ancestor’s memories and an assistant who – spoiler alert – turned out to be an assassin who aids Desmond in his escape. It is possible that Lara will get a similar story line in the film.

At the same time, it’s also entirely possible that the film could be tied into a future game set around the Spanish Inquisition. Games are planned far enough ahead that such a project would be in development already.

It won’t be the next game, however, as that is going to be Assassin’s Creed: Unity, a story set during the French revolution and due out in November, long before shooting on the film will even begin.

There are also various tangential games, including the recently announced Assassin’s Creed: Rogue, which takes place during the 18th century Seven Years’ War. That games i also out this year.

There’s lots of work to do before Assassin’s Creed makes its way to our cinemas, but Fox and Scott Free have pushed back production of Prometheus 2 for Ridley Scott to first tackle The Martian, and this might be just the opening needed to get Fassbender into his Assassin’s robes soon. The film is officially scheduled for August 7th 2015 and we understand there’s still a good chance that they’ll meet it.

Assassin's Creed Movie Release Date Revealed

The upcoming live-action movie based on Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed series starring Oscar-nominated actor Michael Fassbender will hit theatres on December 21, 2016. 20th Century Fox announced the date this week (via The Hollywood Reporter), which is one week after the first Star Wars spinoff from Disney.

Previously, the Assassin's Creed movie was scheduled to come to theaters in August 2015, but Fox delayed the project in September 2014 due to reported production issues.

Fassbender will play the lead role in the film, which will be directed by Justin Kurzel, who directed Fassbender in upcoming movie Macbeth. No other cast members or plot details have been announced.

Talking about the movie last year, Fassbender said the Assassin's Creed film will be respectful of the game. At the same time, however, the actor pointed out that "we also want to bring new elements to it and perhaps our own vision of things that already exist in the game."

Ubisoft has a total of six movies in the pipeline. In addition to Assassin's Creed, the Paris-based publisher is making movies based on its Far Cry, Rabbids, Watch Dogs, Splinter Cell, and Ghost Recon franchises. In all instances, Ubisoft will retain creative control through its Ubisoft Motion Pictures group.

Though the Assassin's Creed movie won't arrive until 2016, fans of the stealth-action series are getting a new game next year in the form of Assassin's Creed Victory, which is set in Victorian era London, according to a recent leak.