Michael Fassbender Is Learning Assassin's Creed On The Fly

Most gamers have that one game, the one that seems to turn 10 minutes into 4 hours and a missed Doctors appointment.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Michael Fassbender described his previous experience with that type of game, which in his case was a racing game. "I'd get obsessive about it and sit there for six hours straight. I decided it wasn't the best thing for me to have around."

That self-imposed exile from video games led to him not experiencing Assassin's Creed before taking on the role in Ubisoft's film adaptation. "I hadn't played it," said the actor. "I was totally ignorant."

After getting the part, the actor has familiarized himself with the universe, but the film is opting to go an original route, with Fassbender portraying a new character named Callum Lynch. Fassbender described him, saying: "Like Desmond was, Lynch is a descendant of a past assassin, this one named Aguilar. "Callum doesn't belong to anything, doesn't have a family. We thought it would be interesting to have somebody that was disconnected be faced with what it means to join something so sacrificial."

Director Justin Kurzel is also in the same boat, learning about the franchise as he goes, never previously playing the games. Kurzel said: "I spent most of my time with the story and the real history That was my main focus – not so much forensically going through every aspect of the game. It was: How do you make this into a piece of cinema?"

Assassin's Creed drops into theatres on December 21st.