In 2016 came two films directed by auteurs that many hoped would break the ‘video game adaptation’ curse – Duncan Jones’ “Warcraft” and Justin Kurzel’s “Assassin’s Creed”.

‘Creed’ in particular showed real promise with “Snowtown” and “Macbeth” director Kurzel, a rich narrative to draw from, a $125 million budget, and a hell of a cast including Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson, and Michael K. Williams.

Reviews however were poor and the film ended up only grossing $54.6 million domestically. Kurzel has since gone on to shoot “True History of the Kelly Gang” which has screened in Toronto, and doing press for that he tells Screen Daily that ‘Creed’ didn’t translate the way he had hoped:

” ‘Assassin’s Creed’ was huge for me, but fraught with difficulties in regard to the script and getting the project ready… There are things about that film I’m proud of. There’s a style and a vision to the film that a lot of people worked hard to achieve. But it was difficult, and its challenges always came back to the script. The film never really found its voice.”

Despite the failure, there’s a small contingent who have embraced the film, and in the last year or so people have begun to warm up to game-to-film adaptations with “Tomb Raider,” “Rampage” and “Pokemon: Detective Pikachu” taking decent reviews.