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Prince of Persia - Sands of Time Movie
http://www.rarityguide.com/articles/articles/262/1/Prince-of-Persia---Sands-of-Time-Movie/Page1.html
By Douglas Shepard (Editor in Chief, RarityGuide.com)
Published on 04/4/2010
 
This article covers the panel held at Wondercon 2010 in San Francisco for the new Disney film, the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. It covers the discussion of the movie by its Director Mike Newell, Producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Writer and creator of the series Jordan Mechner and star Jake Gyllenhaal.

Wondercon 2010 – Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Movie Panel

One of the bigger movies coming out this year is Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. The panel opened with Mike Newell and Jerry Bruckheimer introducing the movie, explaining a bit about the story behind the movie. After that, he showed us a clip from what they called “The Attack on Amulat”. This gave a good demonstration of just the level of action to expect from the movie. It showed the acrobatic and clever Prince that one would expect from the Sands of Time Trilogy. He explained how the sequences were shot in 3 tracks: character development, Stunt and CGI. Some of what had been in the film clip had been real, but some of it had been not. One thing he aimed for was to make the film real, without it “winking at itself” in the post-modern style. He wanted it real from the ground up. After this, they introduced their two guests: Jake Gyllenhaal and Jordan Mechner. I was very surprised to see Jordan there, though it spoke well for the movie. Having the original creator of the series on board can only be a plus for the film.

One of the big things that Newell and Bruckheimer talked and showed, in a second clip, was the time travel element. This is not something that is very common to any media save video games where you have a short amount of time that is being rewound. They presented it in a manner that the Prince is reconstructed, in a fashion, and can watch the rewind from an outside perspective. It does a great job of making it clear that only the Prince is aware of the fact that he has rewound time. Many elements from the game did carry over, as demonstrated by the presence of the “Rewind” power of the Dagger of Time. The Sands of Time remain a force that, if unleashed, would dominate the world. Of course the Dagger is the only artifact that has the power to unleash the Sands. Newell commented on the fact that the story had many good characters behind it, driving it forward. One of them was particular fond of the villains that fought with snakes.

Jake commented on the fact that he started training for the role early and he liked the idea of something louder, bigger and fun. He saw that many of the sets were drawn in Jordan’s sketchbook. Many of the sets were made and very accessible. Action sequences could be made on the fly with many of the sets. He liked the challenge the role presented and had fun with it, recreating this character in such a different media. The Prince himself likes challenges, jumping off things, fighting, and finding the fun inside of it all. Gyllenhaal told the audience about how he had played the original game. He played off some of Mechner’s comment about the baggy pants, saying that the movie was not too far removed from him doing something like that. In ways it was a testament to these famous pajama pants. He commented that his favorite part of the role was getting paid to get in shape and get tan. He also commented that he is indeed somewhat fascinated by time and its many possibilities, when he was asked about how he seems to be in a fair number of movies involving some form of time travel. His many thing here, going over to an action film like this was because he enjoys movies like that.

Mechner was surprised to see his “3 pixel high character” come to life. It was a big change from the idea of a swashbuckler that inspired Mechner to put his little brother in baggy pants and have him run and jump around.

A few of the questions toward the end were about changing the game into the movie. The world of the Prince of Persia offered something great to tell and they got the right people to tell the right story. Mechner talked about how the world in the games is something fantastical, the land from the 1,001 Nights told by Scheherazade. He had meant to draw from that lore to create an artifact like the Dagger of Time and the world we find within the games. Newell also noted that Mechner is an incredible researcher. That he did his research to learn what people wore, the architecture, what like was like in 6th century Persia and incorporate all that into this story. Mechner was also noted for walking around the set with a notepad that he would sketch in.

Overall, it was a panel that was truly fascinating. As an avid fan of the series, seeing Mechner appear at the panel speaks well for the movie itself. The music we heard in the clips also spoke well as it was very reminiscent of the Sands of Time series, again something that speaks well for collaboration. It was only later at Wondercon I was able to get a better idea of the general appeal to the crowd there. When the trailer for it showed that night before the Masquerade, while initially it was silent, by the end of it many were enthusiastic. It is a movie to look forward to for certain come May.



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