Assassin's Creed: Into the Animus

by Ian Nathan, GERARD GUILLEMOT (Foreword)

Become a part of history in this visually stunning exploration of the art and creation of the Assassin’s Creed film. 

Based on the highly popular game series, the fight between the Assassin and Templar now comes to the big screen in Assassin’s Creed, directed by Justin Kurzel. The Art and Making of Assassin’s Creed chronicles the creation of this historical epic in vivid detail, from the incredible design of fifteenth-century Spain to the challenge of recreating iconic characters and places such as Abstergo Industries in an entirely new medium.

Packed with exclusive art and stunning unit photography, The Art and Making of Assassin’s Creed also showcases the incredible fight and parkour choreography that has become a beloved staple of the franchise. Complete with interviews with the costume and set designers as well as film stars Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, The Art and Making of Assassin’s Creed is the ultimate companion book to a film centuries in the making. 

© 2016 Ubisoft Entertainment 

Genres: Art

160 pages, Hardcover

Published December 21, 2016

About the author

Ian Nathan is the popular, London-based author of Anything You Can Imagine: Peter Jackson and the Making of Middle-earth, The Coen Brothers: The Filmmakers and their Films, Alien Vault, Terminator Vault, and many other books, many of which have really long titles.

He is the former editor of Empire Magazine.

If you live in the UK, you may also know from from the Discovering Film series on Sky Arts television extolling the virtues of classic film stars and directors, and he can also be heard on Talk Radio every Friday afternoon, mostly berating the state of current movies. He is just about younger than this makes him sound.

Reviews

[Maitê]

I have never read these sort of books about movies before, I always thought they were a bit unnecessary but I was very wrong.
I personally really like Assassin's Creed, I find that it has many great qualities that elevate it far above most of video games based movies and definitely some of the more famous action movies out there making billions in the box offices. It's only unfortunate that they couldn't quite close the script how it deserved.
Nevertheless, this is a book that not only serves to enhance the movie-going experience but it also highlights all the things that really worked in the movie and gives us a glimpse of all the work, years and dedication that making something like this takes.

[Kristal]

A nice behind the scenes of the movie. I do wish there was more about the games and how they helped frame the movie.

[Shamila]

The movie did not really live up to the expectations when it came out, and you cannot exactly hold the audience responsible, given the nature of the production and the stellar cast it included. The premise with the Spanish Inquisition was an interesting choice but the final product was average, and it is pretty much self-explanatory when reading about how it all came out to be. The cast, fantastic production and set design (including the building of an exact replica of The Court of the Lions), a majority of the stunts being done on camera and intricately made props, all fall short of the fact that the script and direction could have been better. It is by no means bad, but given the nature of the source material with the entirety of the world history at the filmmakers disposal to be explored, the bar had been raised too high. Reading about how all of it made on the silver screen was definitely intriguing; hope the sequels would learn from the mistakes and deliver better.

[Maggies Daisy]

Outstanding! I was unaware of how much detail and preparation needed to be done before and during the making of a movie from a popular gameing character. The book provided so much insight that I think anyone who is thinking of a career in movie making should read this book. Not only is the book exciting but it's pages are filled with action-packed imagery that has me mesmerized with the quality of the photography. Excellent!

[Lamar]

This was a fascinating read about the making of the movie based on video game adaptation even though it wasn't a perfect movie and show as much effort as it could do and this book was extremely worth having for both film fans and Assassin's Creed fans! Great artwork and film props!

[Alex Susaka]

I didn't quite enjoy the book, to be honest. This is because first, I expected weapons and actual graphic map from the game Assasin's creed but instead, it was about a film. Second, The book didn't include lots of photos but instead, it had lots of sentences which I didn't want.