Prince of Persia film footage released

By Robert Purchese Published 12 May, 2009

Dust! Crowds! Fights! Muscles!

Footage from Jerry Bruckheimer's upcoming Prince of Persia: Sands of Time film has appeared on the internet.

The YouTube clip presents a Bruckheimer interview interspersed with clips of the cinematic action. These show the Prince - a freshly-muscled Jake Gyllenhaal - ducking, slashing, and spinning his way through the over-crowded, dusty desert streets.

The set-pieces are stuffed with extras and no expense has been spared, as we've come to expect from Bruckheimer after Pirates of the Caribbean.

The wealthy producer is evidently very impressed with the Donnie Darko star's portrayal of the Prince, too.

"Well he's very handsome and he's in fantastic shape - he got in great shape for this movie," said Bruckeimer. "And he's a brilliant actor and that's what it's all about. He's young, he's talented, and that's what we rely on, his talent."

Donnie Brasco and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire director Mike Newell is at the helm, and will be bossing stars such as Ben Kingsley, Alfred Molina and Gemma Arterton around.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is loosely based on the game of the same name, and will be out in cinemas next May.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (42) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • MORZTAN #1 3 years ago

    Will this be good? No

  • PearOfAnguish #2 3 years ago

    Looks crap.
    Another success for Sir Ben "I'll Do Any Old Shite" Kingsley.

  • HarryPalmer #3 3 years ago

    "what does he bring to the role?"

    "well, he's very handsome, and he's in great shape"

    Wow

  • HarryPalmer #4 3 years ago

    he was ripped tho

  • monkeylite #5 3 years ago

    Hmmm...

  • AphoticCosmos #6 3 years ago

    IMHO Ben Kingsley should just make a cameo as Gandhi and be done with it.

  • HarryPalmer #7 3 years ago


    <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0iRYi-8nZs&feature=rel ated">

    This one's even funnier -

    "I know its a Bruckheimer film, but it's beyond that, it actually has a story"

  • bodypopper #8 3 years ago

    Why not just remake Beastmaster instead? Actually with his cute-but-useful animal sidekicks he'd be a great videogame character.

  • patch #9 3 years ago

    Will it be better / worse / same as Gears of War with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson?

  • alimokrane #10 3 years ago

    you all jump to conclusions from a few seconds of footage ?

  • AphoticCosmos #11 3 years ago

    you all jump to conclusions from a few seconds of footage ?

    Of course, it's the internet.

  • rhinoxious #12 3 years ago

    No, we all jump to conclusions because Bruckheimer's in charge.

  • Rangerwave #13 3 years ago

    Bring us Michael Bay!

  • alimokrane #14 3 years ago

    @rhinoxious

    With Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley & Alfred Molina in the cast, I personally am not worried. oh and Mike Newell is directing NOT Bruckheimer. Jordan Mechner is involved in the script too .... I dont see how they could have had a better team in there.
    Edited by 1 at 12/05/09 @ 10:58

  • Tomo #15 3 years ago

    He's still got Bruckheimer sitting beside him telling him everything he ought to do though :/

  • kingnothing12 #16 3 years ago

    Curse of the black pearl is awesome, i actually have hopes for this one.

  • alimokrane #17 3 years ago

    @Tomo

    Well he was doing the same thing for the pirates of the carribean trilogy and those didnt turn out too bad now did they.
    Edited by 1 at 12/05/09 @ 11:01

  • hiddenranbir #18 3 years ago

    Looks terrible. Rabble rabble rabble.

    Did they even use a single Persian?!?!
    Edited by 1 at 12/05/09 @ 11:06

  • Dizzy #19 3 years ago

    >Did they even use a single Persian?!?!

    We might have killed them all ;)

  • PearOfAnguish #20 3 years ago

    If they know what they're doing there will be at least one fight scene filmed from the side with Ghyllenhall shuffling up and down a corridor waving his sword in the air.

  • Domovoi #21 3 years ago

    If they know what they're doing, there'll be a shot from the side in which Gyllenhaal bunny-hops through a bunch of spikes.

  • Stop-gap #22 3 years ago

    @ Pear
    What, like Oldboy but with a scimitar? I'm kind of interested now :)

  • Azazel #23 3 years ago

    I think it will end with the Prince fighting Leonidas in single combat in an EPIC battle which destroys the world. SPARTA!

  • Gearskin #24 3 years ago

    Looks $$$ for a videogame flick.

  • Grayvern #25 3 years ago

    Am I the only one that thinks Gyllenhaal playing an action hero is one of the signs that reality is really starting to break.

    + It's pretty clear it'll miss the point.
    Edited by 1 at 12/05/09 @ 11:47

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #26 3 years ago

    Surely this has the best combination of cast, director and budget of any videogame adaptation yet? From the footage in that clip, it all looks rather more faithful to the Prince of Persia ethos than Warrior Within or Two Thrones were.

    The only odd thing about it that I could see was that it seemed very crowded. Every scene seemed to have loads of people in it, which seems quite removed from the Pince of Persia aesthetic. That all reminded me rather more of Assasin's Creed.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #27 3 years ago

    It's pretty clear it'll miss the point

    Running and jumping, fighting with swords, Arabian themes, magic, princess. It's missing those points? PoP isn't exactly a Phillip Pullman novel.

  • j-bo #28 3 years ago

    Running and jumping, fighting with swords, Arabian themes, magic, princess. It's missing those points? PoP isn't exactly a Phillip Pullman novel.


    Lol.

    On the plus side, gyllenhoe looks hot as.

  • Hamflank #29 3 years ago

    Holy mother of abs.

  • sneetch #30 3 years ago

    If they know what they're doing, there'll be a shot from the side in which Gyllenhaal misses the same jump four times, falling to his death on the spikes, has to reload each time, makes the jump and is sliced in two by a trap he didn't notice, swears a lot and leaves the movie paused while he goes for a pee.

  • CitizenGeek #31 3 years ago

    I'll probably go see it just for Mr. Gyllenhaal :)

  • roz123 #32 3 years ago

    They could have cast someone who actually looks persian

  • captainrentboy #33 3 years ago

    * I'll echo nearly all of the comments currently over on AICN*
    WHHHAAAATTTTT?? I can't believe they didn't get a big Persian star like...Hmmm... Well, Y'know, that guy? Yeah, they should have got him to play the historically accurate and highly important Prince, not big ole gay Donnie Darko. Look at him, and his hair!! Gay! Hollywood's sooo bloody racist.....

    Sometimes I truely hate AICN. Infact, the vast majority of the time I hate that site :)

  • Avaloner #34 3 years ago

    The only thing that is bugging me till now is that it does not seem to be based on the games too much. Otherwise we will just have to wait and see.

  • Robyrt #35 3 years ago

    What most worries me is Bruckheimer's comment that "he's very handsome, and he's in great shape." Everybody thought that would work for Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, too. And lo and behold, it's not enough to carry a movie on its own! Shocking.

  • sneetch #36 3 years ago

    @roz123
    They could have cast someone who actually looks persian

    In what way, specifically does he not look Persian? Perhaps he just doesn't fit whatever stereotypical Persian you've got in mind at the moment (I'd be willing to bet it's Omid Djalili?) but as Persia/Iran has a hugely diverse population I think he looks about as Persian as the next dark-haired bloke.

  • sneetch #37 3 years ago

    @Robyrt
    What most worries me is Bruckheimer's comment that "he's very handsome, and he's in great shape."

    No, his comment was "he's very handsome, and he's in fantastic shape, he got in great shape for this movie and he's a brilliant actor, and that's what it's all about." He then goes on to say "he's young, he's very talented and that's what we rely on, his talent."

    I wonder what is this mental filter that some people have where they apparently just stop hearing or understanding in the middle of sentences is called?

    That's it I've heard enough for that comments post! Time to start typing. LALALALALALALALA!

  • MightyMouse #38 3 years ago

    It looks pretty much as you'd expect, but the fact that it has Jake Gyllenhaal in it surely makes it a cut above any other videogame adaptation.

  • actionfitz #39 3 years ago

    Dizzy
    12-May-09 11:07:26

    >Did they even use a single Persian?!?!

    "We might have killed them all ;) "

    lol harsh.

    thats a fair point though. might as well be 'Prince of Genericistan'

  • Thunderbolt #40 3 years ago

    Such hatred!

    I must say I am impressed from what I've seen, I think this one could be a winner

    Oded Fehr is an obvious choice but too old for the role I think - you should check him out in the great series Sleeper Cell.

    CountFapula, on reflection WW wasnt that great but still enjoyable and the two thrones had too many GOW QTE for my liking otherwise it was a great game. The first one is still my favourite.

  • Gearskin #41 3 years ago

    I'm not entirely sure what an "emo" is, but considering the Prince's situation, he just looked worn, pissed off and a product of the life he was forced to live.

  • Silvervein #42 3 years ago

    Maybe they should update the movie with some real life events? I mean, with the invasion of *former* persia due to their alleged WMD and stuff there's a lot of material. And the last prince game had some oily black goo covering stuff. Which might be nice analogy to the black goo that was the real reason behind the trouble in iraq.

    So I got this idea: persia is in grip of terror and black goo oozing from under the ground. To help them comes prince of faraway land, Great Wise Shrubbery. He proceeds to fight local corrupt Guardians of Ooze oppressing their fellow persians, and cleans the place of goo by...say..transporting it away (using wheelbarrow) and selling it at the border for weapons and armour (and glam chick companions). Then he storms palace, kills the evil vizier and everyone rejoices.