But two of the world's most celebrated actors, Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, were surrounded by Australians on Assassin's Creed.

Not just director Justin Kurzel, whose previous films were the intense Snowtown and Macbeth, but also his composer brother Jed, cinematographer Adam Arkapaw and actress wife Essie Davis.

"It was great," Fassbender said cheerfully during a quick promotional visit to Sydney. "It was an international set. We also had a French woman, a Swede, a French man, so it was a nice mix. It was like the UN."

The Irish star of the X-Men movies, 12 Years A Slave, Steve Jobs and Alien: Covenant, the Prometheus sequel which he shot in Sydney earlier this year, is also producing Assassin's Creed. He sees it as a potential three-film franchise.

"These sort of films tend to be," he said. "If you're doing over the 100 million [US dollar] mark, in general people are looking for a series of films.

"So the universe of Assassin's Creed allows us to go forward and make some more films, depending obviously on how this one does."

The game, inspired by Vladimir Bartol's novel Alamut, has sold more than 100 million copies in the past decade. It centres on the clash over the centuries between a secret order of Assassins, who believe in free will, and their controlling enemies, the Templars.

Fassbender plays a prisoner on death row who gets a second chance at life as the subject of an experimental technology that unlocks genetic memories. It takes him back to fighting as an assassin in 15th-century Spain.

He has no idea why so many movies based on video games – and there has been a long and largely forgettable list since Super Mario Bros in 1993 – have not connected with audiences in the same way as the original.

"To be honest with you, I haven't seen any of them," Fassbender said. "I think I saw half of Tomb Raider. I just knew that this world that I was introduced to through [video game publisher] Ubisoft – I'm not a gamer – was a new world to me.

"I thought 'wow, this is really fascinating'. This concept of DNA memory, genetic memory, it seemed to be something like what people call a sixth sense or instinct. This knowledge and experience that we have passed down from our ancestors to us."

Cotillard, the Oscar-winning French star of La Vie En Rose, Inception and The Dark Knight Rises, was more familiar with video games – well, some of them – before taking on the movie.

"I was totally addicted to Tetris, a different kind of video game," she said. "And Mario Bros. Super Mario."

The attraction of Assassin's Creed was exploring a different genre and working with Kurzel again. She plays a scientist who runs what's called the Animus project.

"When I worked with Justin the first time, and all these amazing people he brought with him to work on Macbeth, I just had a very, very strong experience," she said.

"Justin is definitely one of the best directors I've worked with so I was super excited and happy to get to work with him again on this very different project."

Whether Fassbender gets to produce another instalment will become clearer when Assassin's Creed opens in North America before Christmas then Australia on January 1.

And if the keen surfer gets to come back to Sydney to shoot two more planned Alien instalments for director Ridley Scott, that will be just fine with him.

"It's my favourite location for filming," he said before heading off for his second surf of the day. "It's very possible but I'll just wait and see what they tell me to do."