Jake Gyllenhaal Really is The Prince of Persia

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on May 20, 2008

We’ve got to hand it to our good friend El Mayimbe over at Latino Review — the guy seems to get a lot of big casting scoops right. The trades are confirming today what Latino Review told us back in early April, that Jake Gyllenhaal is going to play the title role in Disney’s Prince of Persia.

New Bond girl Gemma Arterson (Quantum of Solace) will star alongside Gyllenhaal as Tamina, a feisty and exotic princess with whom Gyllenhaal’s character Dastan must join forces in order prevent a villanous nobleman from possessing the Sands of Time, a gift from the gods that can reverse time.

The project is currently under the watchful eye of uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Caribbean, National Treasure) with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire director Mike Newell on as, well, director.

As a PC game franchise, Prince of Persia has been around since 1989, when it was created by Jordan Mechner. It has since spawned multiple different incarnations across just about every gaming platform. According to reports, Mechner has revealed that the movie will not be a straight adaptation of the videogame “Sands of Time” (with which it shares a title), 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.”

Production is set to begin in July, with a tentative June 16, 2009 release date.

This is all news that will come as no surprise to those who follow movie news online, as the aforementioned Gyllenhaal scoop was delivered online almost 45 days ago. It is worth noting, however, that neither The Hollywood Reporter or Variety made mention of Latino Review’s breaking of the story back in April. I don’t know about you, but I smell some discrimination — of some kind.

As for the announcement itself and this whole movie thing that will be shot and ultimately thrown up onto large screens for us to view, it appears to be going well, at least in my mind. Mike Newell is a very capable director and Jerry Bruckheimer is certainly no slouch himself. Gyllenhaal is a solid actor who has proven himself to be able to handle a good range of roles, everything from Jarhead to Brokeback Mountain says the kid can act. The presence of these three people alone puts this video game adaptation on a level far superior to previous game adaptations — most of which reside in Uwe Boll’s filmography.

As well, Gemma Arterton is hot. Note her hotness and its relation to the hot outfit that Tamina wears in the game. Whomever the costume designer is for this film has a great responsibility to deliver Arterton’s hotness in a way that will please all of the gamer geeks of the world. I get the feeling that it won’t be too hard a task.

Sound Off: What do you think of Gyllenhaal as the Prince of Persia?

Photos courtesy of Slashfilm

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