Disney is interested in hiring Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire helmer Mike Newell to direct a big screen live-action adaptation of the popular video game Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. According to Variety, Super Producer Jerry Bruckheimer has made an offer to Newell, who met with studio executives about the project this week. Earlier this year it was rumored that Michael Bay was in line to re-team with the Bad Boys, The Rock, Pearl Harbor, Armageddon producer for the adaptation. But this was before Transformers became a massive hit.
Prince of Persia is an action adventure video game which follows an adventurous prince who teams up with a rival princess to stop an angry ruler from unleashing a sandstorm that could destroy the world. The Sands of Time game was released in late 2003 and is a continuation to the popular PC game series Prince of Persia, created by Jordan Mechner in 1989. The game was praised for its visual design and finely tuned game mechanics, and won several awards. The game’s success led to a couple sequels.
The initial script was written by Jordan Mechner with subsequent drafts by Jeffrey Nachmanoff (The Day After Tomorrow). Mechner has revealed that the movie will not be a straight beat-for-beat adaptation of the videogame, but will instead take “some cool elements from the game and using them to craft a new story - much as ‘Pirates’ [of the Caribbean] did with the theme park ride.”
November 8th, 2007 at 12:31 am
It was a terrible video game. So if really good video games all get terrible film adaptions, I can’t imagine how bad this will turn out.
November 8th, 2007 at 1:53 am
You are joking right? It was one of the best reviewed games of that year.
That aside I wonder how the hell they are going to cast this movie. I think the producer’s best bet is to try to get some Bollywood stars (that have crossover potential, which there are many, if you happen to live outside of the US you know this) to take the roles and put in some western actors (Villain?) for the American audience and hope for a more international than domestic success (which these days seems like a realistic prospect given the changing attitudes towards int’l releases for American produced films).
I swear to god I will shit a brick if they pull some Jungle Book shit and do some weird ass casting decisions (Jason Scott Lee = Indian? Right…)
November 8th, 2007 at 2:56 am
Probable star: Keanu Reeves. He’s got the indeterminate multi-ethnic look and blockbuster action background. He was on tap to play Sinbad before PotC sequels deep sixed that project.
Other possibility: Dwayne Johnson. Might be too close to Scorpion King though.
November 8th, 2007 at 4:25 am
in response to free associating:
keanu prob would have been a possibility if this movie were made 7-10 years ago. He’s too old now. But i agree he does have that multi-ethnic thing going on. I wonder if that means that in 500 years that all of our offspring are going to be some variant of him once the world has mixed itself over and over to where there is no clear definition of race.
November 8th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
@Rob
Are you crazy? That game was beautiful, well designed and had more personality than most of the award winner games from recent years. It was extremely well thought out and executed.
Too bad for the 2 sequels - they changed the charming personality of the prince for some XTREME (WHOOOHOOO YEAH!!!!!) version of himself. The sequels had none of the personality and charm that made it so great; so IMHO the original will forever remain in my mind as one of the best games ever made.
November 8th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
First of all u guys are a bunch a reres cause its supposed to be an animated movie, 2nd of all this sux that they booted mike because if it turns out anything like transformers its gunna be nasty and ROB this was one of the greatest games of all time
November 8th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Keanu Reeves? You’re kidding, right? If this (again, if) this was live action (heck, it’d work animated too) Oded Fehr (see website) would work out best for the role.
November 9th, 2007 at 1:41 am
If I’m reading this right,, this is exactly what’s wrong with video game movies: “take a couple of characters from the game, a few bad guys, a similar locale, change the story completely, yay!”. The video game adaptation which worked best was Silent Hill, and that is because it’s the one which deviated the least from the game, understood that the game already had an interesting story. When you adapt book, you don’t go ahead and rape its story do you? Well, unless your name is Tony Gilroy, you don’t! Same for video games, the new Prince Of Persia trilogy has a well-defined story, and there’s no need to change it, it will only anger and alienate fans.
PS: How is this supposed to be animated? Bruckheimer has never done an animated movie in his life!