But Ubisoft chairman Yves Guillemot has no such reservations.

Speaking to a group of investors and industry executives in New York today at the BMO Capital Markets digital entertainment conference, Guillemot says he has very high hopes for the movie.

Among the highlights for Ubisoft next year, Stephen Totilo reports from the event, should be the Prince of Persia which “will show what a video game property can do in the (movie) industry… What we hear is that it could maybe be stronger than Pirates (of the Caribbean) which did $US2.7 billion dollars worldwide.”

If they don’t stick their head in the sand.

Gyllenhaal recalls one scene in the flick with real live ostriches — “not CG ostriches”. According to Jake and his chest, “There’s not a CG’ed ostrich in this movie. They’re all real ostriches, highly paid, and we were all briefed on them for weeks before like ‘They’re these massive destructive creatures that can tear your heart out with their claws.’”

Jake was shaking in his boots, he says. His chest was afraid, too.

“One of my stuntmen was in the ring with them, and finally,” he says, “I was like, ‘When am I going to be in a f—king cage with ostriches again in my life? I gotta get in here!’ So I got in there and they were the sweetest things.”

The birds were, most likely, hypnotised by his chest. Gyllenhaal adds that he hopes the ostriches come back for reshoots or the second Prince of Persia movie: “Well, hopefully ostriches will come back again… either in reshoots or hopefully in a second one.”

There’s going to be another Prince of Persia movie? Hope they call it, Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow, the Flame and the Ostriches.

Prince of Persia On Set Interviews: Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton [Slash Film]

The British trailer for the upcoming Prince of Persia movie is quite different to the American one. Theirs comes complete with not just new footage, but a handy voice-over as well.

According to film producer Jerry Bruckheimer, the movie is screening great — no, better than great. Greater than great! Says the producer, “What we found when we tested the movie a few weeks ago, and it tested extraordinarily high which surprised me because I always think these things are going to fail but this one turned out great; the women were a surprise because I thought we made a terrific movie for the boys because the girl is beautiful but the women flipped over this film.”

Continuing, he adds, “I’ve never had a score where the parents, there is violence, too, because it’s PG-13, but the parents rated the film a hundred percent with an excellent or very good which has never happened before. So it’s one of these movies that we know they’ll take their children to go see it which is a huge advantage for a film, that parents can say, ‘Hey, it’s cool. My kid can see it.’”

Even jaded old me must admit, that trailer looks pretty cool.

News: Interview: Prince of Persia Producer Jerry Bruckheimer And Creator Jordan Mechner [Latino Review]

Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner says that one of the first things lost in translation from video game to film is gameplay. But the Prince of Persia film hopes to dodge that bullet with its action/adventure genre label.

You can see from the trailer just how much of that “action/adventure” thrust comes from what look like platforming puzzles writ large with Jake Gyllenhaal. Those of you who played the Sands of Time games though, will be expecting a lot more than just jumping around. You want to see time rewinding and sand monsters, don’t you?

Well, too bad, says Mechner. To get the whole time-rewinding mechanic into the movie, some things had to be changed or cut completely.

“In the movie, the [Dagger of Time]’s powers are much more limited,” he said. If they’d left it the same, after all, the Prince would be omnipotent and the plot would get mighty boring.

So instead, there will be “consequences” for using the Dagger and there won’t be sand monsters Jake Gyllenhaal fights to recharge it.

Sadly, Mechner wouldn’t say what kind, with whom there would be or how many “boss fights” we could expect to see in the film. But he did say that producer Jerry Bruckheimer — that master of big, big action/adventure movies — knows what he’s doing when it comes to creating an experience that everybody including non-gamers will be into. And because it’s set in a sort of sub-genre of “1001 Arabian Nights” action/adventure, Prince of Persia the movie will probably go a long way toward appealing to the Pirates of the Caribbean-starved masses.

If only we could count on it to unseat Twilight. Alas, I’m not seeing much chemistry between Gemma Arterton and Jake Gyllenhaal in the trailer’s banter snippets.

What do you make of the trailer?

P.S. No, Mechner didn’t say anything about film sequels. However, he did say Ubisoft has something big planned to announce in conjunction with the film’s marketing as the release date draws nearer. Dare we hope for a video game sequel?

The official trailer for Disney’s Prince of Persia movie have hit the interwebs, featuring just the right amount of jumping on things and sand. This one could be a winner, folks!

This looks to be the same Prince of Persia trailer that AJ last week, with the two lines from Ben Kingsley, Jake Gyllenhaal leaping about and Gemma Arterton talking up a sandstorm about the Dagger of Time and its effects. Speaking of effects, they look spectacular, but any kids with a computer can make good special effects these days. The plot is what matters here, and we still have no idea how that’s going to play out. Those of you who go to movies just to see men leaping, however, are sure to be pleased.

If you want to see it for yourself, sit tight — it runs with the premiere of 2012 on November 13. Also I’m sure it’ll hit the interwebs well before then. If you want to know how I felt about what I saw, read on. But know that I still haven’t forgiven Ben Kingsley for BloodRayne.

Now I realise that once you’ve played Gandhi on the silver screen (and won an Oscar for it), everything else must pale in comparison. But seriously, Sir Kingsley, would it have killed you to show up for fencing lessons in preparation for filming BloodRayne? Just because the director sucks doesn’t mean you have to.

As it turns out, Sir Kingsley only has two lines in the trailer (which is still twice as much as what comic relief character Alfred Molina gets) — so I can’t judge his performance based entirely on that. The majority of the trailer is Jake Gyllenhaal leaping off of things while Gemma Arterton narrates in a quasi-mystical voice about the Dagger of Time and its powers.

Like all action trailers, there’s a lot of quick cutting between unrelated sequences. Someone opens a door, the Prince looks around like he’s confused and the Princess—called Tamina, not Farah—walks around looking pretty and exchanges PG-rated flirts with the Prince. Some dudes in black robes show up, looking like they just walked off the set of The Scorpion King and there’s a lot of sand and gold stuff.

An interesting scene I noticed being repeated was a glowing fiery vortex within the Dagger of Time. You can see it in the trailer when the Prince activates it during a fight to rewind time. You see it again at the end of the trailer only somehow the Prince and some other person appear to be inside the Dagger, swirling around the vortex. Seems like a climactic boss fight to me. Also a temple-looking place collapses — it’s all very Indiana Jones.

Speaking of which, someone pointed out to me the irony in having Alfred Molina play a comic relief character in an Indiana Jones-esque film. I’d completely forgotten that he’s the guy in Raiders of the Lost Ark with the famous line, “Throw me idol, I’ll throw you the whip.” How about that.

After the screening of the trailer, we were given a little bit of Q&A time with Jordan Mechner, but you’ll have to sit tight for that as well.

Be honest — how many of you are going to go see the film 2012 just so you can watch the Prince of Persia trailer on the big screen? I totally did that with Scooby-Doo for a Harry Potter trailer and again with some other terrible film for a Two Towers trailer.

Image Cred
Image Cred

Some readers thought the package, which came with the three pictured games and no explanatory note, was an elaborate tease of a new Prince of Persia game.

Some suggested that these three games were bound by the fact that their protagonists were all replacements.

One reader helpfully noted to me that all three games were published by Ubisoft.

The envelope they arrived in only indicated that the Family Feud would be inside. So I wondered if the person mailing it just threw some extras in. Then I heard from other people in the games media who received the same package.

Well, the dull truth is that these games were part of Ubisoft’s mailing to judges for the 2009 Spike Video Game Awards this year. A company rep confirmed the details to me today. These and other games that didn’t make it into that package—unless the mailman snatched himself an early copy of Assassin’s Creed II or something—are titles the company hopes will be considered for some of the possible VGA categories.

Prince of Persia may have been released in December of 2008, but it just qualifies for the December 2nd 2008 date of eligibility for this year’s VGA. Games released through late November 2009 are eligible. The awards air on Spike on December 12.

So, it’s not a hint of a Prince of Persia sequel. Sorry.

Gamasutra reports that Mechner sees potential for the film to continue on its own way in sequels that aren’t necessarily bound to any of the Prince of Persia games. This is part of his theme of evolution where the series is enriched by the unpredictability of video game and film production cycles.

At least I think that’s what he’s saying. I kind of zeroed in on this one part where Mechner mentioned the potential for future video game sequels – which I’d much rather see, given the poor history of game-to-movie conversions:

“I don’t have a preconception of what the Prince of Persia game in 10 years should look like. I think we’re at a good place because the games that have been done up to this point have been so scattered and the franchise isn’t locked into one place, but I think people have feelings about which parts they like best… The next game can take the best parts of the franchise and build from there.”

GDC China: Jordan Mechner Charts Prince Of Persia’s Creative Evolution [Gamasutra]

Image Cred

He’s the creator of Prince of Persia, that’s who.

We’re not sure if this latest trademark is a game or some sort of tie-in for the upcoming movie Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Besides making games, Mechner busies himself by writing graphic novels, directing documentaries and penning screenplays.

Latest Status Info [Tarr.gov via superannuation via Game centre Online]