PoP movie to be filmed in Morocco

By Ellie Gibson Published 10 March, 2008

Shooting will begin this summer.

The big screen adaptation of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is set to begin shooting in Morocco this summer, according to Variety.

"Producers are always looking for cheap places to shoot and Morocco is one of them," said Disney representative Jimmy Abounouom. He reckons the Moroccan shoot will kick off in mid-June, while other bits of the movie will be filmed in the UK at Pinewood Shepperton studios.

The film is being directed by Mike Newell whose previous credits include Donnie Brasco, Pushing Tin and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Jerry Bruckheimer is producing.

The script is by Jeffrey Nachmanoff, who also wrote The Day After Tomorrow, and PoP creator Jordan Mechner. Trousers will be supplied by MC Hammer.

Sources, i.e. IMDB, suggest the Prince of Persia film is out next year - but nothing has so far been confirmed.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (13) Latest comment 4 years ago

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  • UncleLou #1 4 years ago

    That'll be one schmaltzy CGI-spectacle instead of something good.

    Trousers will be supplied by MC Hammer

    :)

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #2 4 years ago

    I dunno, Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer managed to make a decent trilogy of movies out of a theme park ride, so this could be genuinely alright.

    From what I've heard, the plot is going to be faithful enough (to Sands of Time), and the location sounds like it's as Persian as you can get outside the 'Axis of Evil'. I guess the real litmus test will be when they announce the casting of their Prince. Let's hope it's not Justin Timberlake, eh?

  • asphaltcowboy #3 4 years ago

    Mentalist(air) a small correction: ...Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer managed to make a decent first film out of a theme park ride...

    Still, we can always hope this will be good, right? RIGHT?

  • Nilsy #4 4 years ago

    Itīs no Boll production at least

  • sailesh #5 4 years ago

    hope it's good.

  • tapper #6 4 years ago

    I hope they're going to sprinkle death scenes of the prince throughout the movie and then rewind a few seconds.

    "No, no, no, that didn't happen..."

  • Olemak #7 4 years ago

    Sounds like they're throwing a fair bit of talent and money at it, so it might be all right. Big fantasy-themed trilogies (or just film series) seems to be all the rage this decade, I guess they're hooping this will be a series of movies in the same league as Pirates of the Carribean, The Golden Compass and The Narnoa Chronicles.

    I just hope they look at the story, the characters and the action separately from the videogame genre - that they try to make a decent film based on the "tone and feel" of the games, rather than to do an interpretation of the gameplay, which just wouldn't make any sense at all - but this is still what most film makers try to do when adopting games into movies. This could be a cool movie about a handsome, agile and resourceful prince - or it could be a movie about a platformer/hack'n'slash brawle. Im not the least interested in seeing the latter...

    Are there any good "araby-looking" lead actors around? That guy from Lost is great, and the indian guy in Heroes too, but both are a little old...
    By the way: Are there any parcour tracteurs around who can both speak english and act (and looks OK)?

    Adil Thattal certainly looks the part, and has the moves, he can even act - dunno what his english is like. No chance it would ever go to him though, not high enough profile. They'll probably do an Al Jolson on Ben Affleck or something instead :)

  • Zuiyo #8 4 years ago

    I hope there are plenty of Arab actors capable of doing this so they don't need to give the role to Paul Walker or Bow Wow. I would love for any actor to do his own stunts though. Action movies are just not the same after Chan set the new paradigm.

  • DAN.E.B #9 4 years ago

    Tony Jaa,s the new Chan

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #10 4 years ago

    Are there any good "araby-looking" lead actors around?

    Kal Penn (Kalpen Modi)?

    Was he any good in 24 or House? I've only ever seen him do comedy. Indian==Middle Eastern in Hollywood eyes, it would seem at least as far as Naveen Andrews is concerned.

  • tapper #11 4 years ago

    Maybe John Abraham for the prince?

    He looks good and can act.

  • Triggerhappytel #12 4 years ago

    @ tapper - good choice there with John Abraham, he definitely looks the part.

    To be honest I don't expect much from this. It will probably be a painfully stylish and CGI swamped PotC/National Treasure clone. Perhaps if I keep these expectations low I will be able to avoid dissapointment.

  • Davemanz #13 4 years ago

    Donnie Brasco was pretty fantastic. Then again this couldn't be more different so it doesn't much matter. Rental!