News
March 10th, 2008 | Digg This
Variety have some important and significant news for us about the Prince of Persia movie adaptation. It seems that director Mike Newell has been scouting locations in Morocco, with studio work taking place at Pinewood, England. With shooting set to start in mid-June.
Choice of Morocco as a shooting location will be a boost for the North African country’s film biz.
[...]
“Producers are always looking for cheap places to shoot and Morocco is one of them,” said Dune Films’ Jimmy Abounouom, who is repping the Moroccan shoot for Disney.
Dune execs previously handled the Moroccan shoots of Tom Hanks starrer “Charlie Wilson’s War” and Kimberly Peirce’s “Stop-Loss.”
“Prince of Persia” will also lens in Blighty’s Pinewood Shepperton studios. Project is in pre-production. Abounouom told Variety he expects the Moroccan section of the shoot to start in mid-June, labor wrangles notwithstanding.
Thanks to Nettle (Caitie)
January 5th, 2008 | Digg This
Gamasutra recently had a sit down talk with Prince of Persia creator, Jordan Mechner. I’ve posted the majority of the interview here because it provides a huge amount of insight into the development of the movie adaptation, and who am I to paraphrase Mr Mechner.
There’s been buzz about the Prince of Persia movie. Who’s producing? Who’s directing?
Jerry Bruckheimer is producing for Walt Disney Pictures. Mike Newell [ Donnie Brasco, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire] is the director.
What’s it like working with Jerry Bruckheimer?
I’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg, but he is extremely focused, detail-oriented and completely unflappable. Things that most people might consider a crisis — hurricanes, strikes, whatever — he handles very calmly and somehow it all works out. I can see why the studios feel confident entrusting him with hundreds of millions of dollars. If he’s making the movie, everything’s gonna be OK.
Is Ubisoft involved or does your license agreement allow you to do this separately?
They’re separate deals. Ubisoft has the videogame rights to Prince of Persia and Disney has the film rights.
How long has the script been in development?
I wrote the first draft and several revisions over a period of about a year and a half. Two more years of development followed, in which additional revisions were done by (in this order): Jeff Nachmanoff, Boaz Yakin, Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard.
That sounds like a crazy number of writers, but the original screenplay structure, plot and characters have survived the whole process pretty much intact.
It’s still very much the same movie John August and I pitched to Disney and Bruckheimer back in 2004 — it’s been streamlined in certain ways, souped up in others. It’s a good, solid story and I think it’ll be very satisfying on screen.
What are the differences between writing for a video game and writing for a film? How closely does the movie storyline correspond to the games?
If you summarize the movie in one sentence, it sounds identical to the first Sands of Time videogame, but scene by scene it’s actually completely different. It has to be, because games and film are such different mediums.
On the surface they’re deceptively similar — you can watch five minutes of an action-adventure videogame and think “this could be a movie,” or vice-versa — but structurally the requirements are totally different.
Here’s one example: The game kicks off with a cataclysm that basically destroys the world and turns all living creatures except for the three main characters into raging, murderous sand monsters. That was a great setup for the gameplay we had, which was “acrobatic Persian survival horror.”
But if you put that setup in a film, it would be a “B” movie, and that’s not the kind of movie Prince of Persia should be. Our model is classic epic, swashbuckling action-adventure movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Zorro, and Thief of Baghdad, with humor and romance and full of memorable characters. You can’t get there if you turn everybody into sand monsters on page fifteen.
I hope Sands of Time game fans will see the movie with an open mind and judge it based on the experience it creates for them, not by the standard of how closely it matches the 2003 video game. The game still exists and you can still have the experience of playing it. We’re not destroying it by making the movie. We’re creating something new that has to stand on its own, just as the game did.
Will there be a game title that goes along with the movie? Are there any new games in the works separate from the movie?
Sorry, but I can’t answer that question!
How close is the movie to starting filming and how does the strike affect it?
The movie is in pre-production. At this moment there’s no way to know how long the writers’ strike will last, or if the directors’ and actors’ guilds will strike as well. It’s a very insecure time for the whole industry.
A lot of big movies that were set to go, now aren’t. I was really hoping that Mike Newell would be the one to direct this movie and I was ecstatic when he agreed, but it was bittersweet because I only had about 24 hours to rejoice before the writers’ strike began.
I support my guild and the writers’ cause, so until the strike is resolved I can’t meet with Newell and the Bruckheimer execs or contribute further to the development of the movie. It’s frustrating because I’ve been dreaming of a Prince of Persia movie, basically, for 20 years, and now at this key moment when the project has finally found the right director and he’s brimming with enthusiasm and excitement, I can’t even meet with him.
December 5th, 2007 | Digg This
Collider had the opportunity to catch up with producer Jerry Bruckheimer at the National Treasure: Book of Secrets junket. In doing so they managed to reveal a number of interesting new details about the film’s schedule (albeit in some terribly phrased English).
The important points to take from the interview:
- Nobody has been cast
- The movie may become a franchise
- Filming is set to start in June, if the writer’s strikes get resolved.
Some quotes:
Jerry Bruckheimer: We hired a very interesting director – Mike Newell – who did one of the Harry Potter’s and also did Donnie Brasco and he’s a very inventive, ingenious director and I think he’s going to bring something really special to it. [...]
Q: Is this one of these properties that you envision the possibility of a franchise [...]?
Jerry Bruckheimer: Yes. It’s a big production and if they work it’s another character that you can take on other adventures.
Q: Do you have any casting on it?
Jerry Bruckheimer: Not yet.
November 12th, 2007 | Digg This
Reelz Channel will soon be posting a video interview with Mike Newell concerning the Prince of Persia Movie adaptation. In the mean time, Reelz report:
From the way he was talking, Newell made it clear that he plans to make this movie. The only thing that is holding up progress is indeed the writers’ strike that has ground Hollywood to a hault. [...]
When asked if and how the ‘dagger of time’ would figure into the movie, Newell affirmed that it will be the main focus. ‘It’s all about the dagger of time,’ he told us.
Thanks Westley!
November 8th, 2007 | Digg This
Well, this was a turn up for the books and something I didn’t really see coming. It seems that Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney have made an offer to Mike Newell (Harry Potter Goblet of Fire, Donnie Brasco) to direct, according to Variety. Negotiations are expected to begin in the coming week.
Thanks to John for the heads up.
June 16th, 2007 | Digg This
Screenwriter/Executive Producer John August has laid down his views regarding Disney’s planned release date for the Prince of Persia adaptation, he’s not so sure:
Several sites have reported that Disney has picked July 10, 2009 as the release date for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. My guess is that this got written on a whiteboard at some strategic planning meeting, in answer to the question, “Hey, if we made that Prince of Persia movie, when would we release it?”
It’s a perfectly good date, but I have no idea if there will be a movie to show. I don’t know if it’s getting made, or who’s directing, or who’s starring. No one knows, not even the people signing the checks. It’s still a project in development.
Maybe late summer 2009? We’ll have to see how things develop.
June 9th, 2007 | Digg This
Nothing more to really say, Disney has set forth not just a vague Summer 2009 indication, but a specific date - July 10th to be exact, 2 years and one month from now. The ball, like that one in Indiana Jones, is certainly rolling now, Parkour and all.
Via ComingSoon.
June 1st, 2007 | Digg This
Latino Review is a website infamous for its early previews, publications and reviews of in-development first draft scripts. This time they have done it again with a review of Bruckheimer’s Prince of Persia adaptation, with screenplay written by Jordan Mechner and Jeffrey Nachmanoff. Their conclusion?
Rating: A-, Almost Perfect
What does that mean in real terms? Not a lot really, but it is encouraging. To surmise the fairly lengthy review:
- Expect a lot of Parkour (remember that scene in Casino Royale?) - Personally I feel that this film is perfect for some parkour exhibitionism, melding seamlessly with the subject matter: “Parkour is a physical art of French origin, the aim of which is to move from point A to point B as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body.“
- The script begins with Nizam and the Persian Army intercepting some smugglers. Distan is introduced in a knife throwing contest.
- Distan is soon in possession of a ceremonial dagger with a glass handle filled with sand and encrusted with stones.
- By the end of act 1 the storyline of the film is setup (not revealed here) and the powers of the dagger briefly unveiled.
And here is a prospective movie poster:
