According to a report from Variety, video game publisher and developer Ubisoft has created a new division dedicated to adapting its breadth of franchises for film and television. The studio--dubbed Ubisoft Motion Pictures--will reportedly be based out of Ubisoft's hometown of Paris, France.

Ubisoft has shown interest in bringing its properties to other medias in the past, even going so far as to produce a web series revolving around the Assassin's Creed franchise. In 2007, the company announced plans to open a CGI studio in Montreal. In the same year, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot was quoted on the possibility of Ubisoft shifting some focus to film development.

Variety notes that the 2010 Disney-produced film adaptation of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time currently stands as the most successful video game to movie conversion of all time, bringing in roughly $335 million worldwide.

One of Ubisoft's first leaps into the world of movie making didn't pan out as well as Prince of Persia, however, as evidenced by the "Coming Soon" teaser trailer for a Splinter Cell movie included in the "Bonus" menu of 2007's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. A film based on the franchise has yet to be released.

The report revealed that Ubisoft Motion Pictures will be helmed by former Europacorp CEO Jean-Julien Baronnet, with former Walt Disney Studios France executive Jean de Rivieres taking on duties as the new division's marketing and promotion manager.

In 2008, Ubisoft acquired the special effects studio Hybride, which helped bring the heavily-CGI feature films 300 and Sin City to life. Ubisoft also worked closely with film industry veteran James Cameron to develop a game based on the Avatar film property. Avatar: The Game launched to mediocre reviews, currently sitting on a Metacritic average of 60.