There are a lot of people very, very excited about the Assassin's Creed film - not least of all because Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard are attached to the project.

While it may be based on the popular video-game series, they won't act as the only inspiration for the movie. Instead, the CEO of Ubisoft, Jean-Julien Baronnet, reportedly told the director to reference other major films, two fantastic in particular: Blade Runner and Batman Begins.

According to Slash film, he told French magazine, Premiere: "[Fassbender] accepted very quickly. And it was the only actor which we thought was obvious. So we started with the actor, which is incongruous. Even more incongruous, he engaged us with nothing.

"There was no script, no studio or anything. We told him we were going to build the project together, we have a huge brand and we want to make a make a film with references to feature films like Batman Begins and Blade Runner. That is why we tend to. He was promised that he could work with the writers, we would associate it with all key creative choices."

According to the CEO, the reason Fassbender and director Justin Kurzel signed on for the movie was that they would be allowed creative freedom, to construct the franchise themselves with very few reference points.

He goes on to say that Ubisoft offered the same thing to Tom Hardy, who will lead the upcoming Splinter Cell movie: "This is obviously attractive for intelligent players like Michael Fassbender and Tom Hardy. It is like a huge studio because it has huge brand, but it is a small structure. And it will remain like that, you do not want to become bigger.

"Tom Hardy was also evident on Splinter Cell. We had the same discussion and it is also committed immediately. Tom is a gamer and he loves the world of Splinter Cell. We worked a lot with him on the character.

Brendan Gleeson and Jeremy Irons are set to star alongside Fassbender in the upcoming Assassin's Creed film which has just started shooting. It has a release date of 30 December 2016.