Prince of Persia retrospective
Jordan Mechner forwarded me this Ubisoft-created look back at the Prince of Persia series. It’s in sucky .wmv format, but does a nice job showing the evolution of the franchise from its humble PC roots.
Anticipating your inevitable questions:
- No, I don’t know when the movie will come out.
- No, we haven’t cast anyone.
- Yes, the movie is based on “The Sands of Time,” the first game in the series, which is lighter and more swashbuckling than the later games.
- Yes, we’re aware of the fact that Babylon (games two and three) doesn’t have anything to do with Persia.
- No, we don’t have a director yet.
- Yes, I think it would be great to find a (relatively) unknown Persian actor to play the prince. It’s not my decision, though. Just my opinion.
- No, don’t send headshots. Or links. I’ll delete them.
- I’m serious. Stop.
Who am I kidding? I’ll end up having to close comments anyway. But in the meantime, you can see the promo here.
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March 9th, 2006 at 6:46 pm
On a somewhat related note, I was wondering if there was any video game to movie adaptions you thought translated well.
March 9th, 2006 at 6:54 pm
Hey John-
Just wanted to let you know that this retrospective is available in glorious QuickTime over at:
http://gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?id=1666
It’s the third trailer down, and you have to watch a commercial before seeing it. A friend of mine works over there and he was stoked when I told him about you putting it up.
Enjoy.
March 9th, 2006 at 7:23 pm
Go with Kal Penn from Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. Blockbuster.
March 9th, 2006 at 10:17 pm
Hey John, I got to read a draft of Persia about 2 years ago. I think it was one of the firsts drafts submitted. I enjoyed it. It read like a fun, popcorn flick. Though I know those words fun and popcorn can be killer sometimes, I must admit I really enjoyed, particularly since I’ve never played any of the games before. It was something I was required to read and I just wanted to let you know that I thought Jordan did a great job. I’m sure you’ve been through many more drafts since the initial. Good luck with the project.
March 9th, 2006 at 11:37 pm
Ooo! Ooo! Get an unknown SAMOAN actor. That’d rock.
March 9th, 2006 at 11:42 pm
So, John.
When is the film coming out?
Have you cast anyone?
And did you receive my headshot? :P
March 10th, 2006 at 2:21 am
Nooooo – not more Prince of Persia comments!!!
I used to be subscribed to your comments RSS feed, and I did find the comments on the last Prince of Persia post particularly amusing….
More fun to be had here!
March 10th, 2006 at 7:36 am
I love the games, though I have yet to complete the last one, The Two Thrones, as the final boss is kicking my ass!
Whenever I play the games, I always imagine Naveen Andrews, who plays Sayid on Lost as being the prince.
I am under no illusions that I have made any difference to the development of the movie with these comments. Just thought I’d say.
March 10th, 2006 at 11:25 am
Just a minor correction on your comment that Babylon doesn’t have anything to do with Persia. In the game, Babylon is the capital of the Persian Empire. This dates it to the time of Darius I, circa 500BC. Here is the relevant quote from Wikipedia entry on Babylon:
Under Cyrus and his heir Darius I, Babylon became the capital city of the 9th Satrapy (Babylonia in the south and Athura in the north), as well a centre of learning and scientific advancements. In Achaemenid Persia, the ancient Babylonian arts of astronomy and mathematics were revitalised and flourished, and Babylonian scholars completed maps of constellations. Overall the city being the administrative capital of the Persian Empire (the preeminent power of the then known world), played a vital part in the history of that region for over two centuries. To date, many important archeological discoveries have been being made that can provide a better understanding of that era, not only in regards to the role of Babylon and the Persian Empire, but perhaps the history of its earlier inhabitants as well[2][3].
The early Persian kings had attempted to maintain the religious ceremonies of Marduk, but by the reign of Darius III, over-taxation and the strains of numerous wars led to a deterioration of Babylon’s main shrines and canals, and the disintegration of the surrounding region. Despite three attempts at rebellion in 522 BC, 521 BC, and 482 BC, the land and city of Babylon remained solidly under Persian rule for two centuries, until Alexander the Great’s entrance in 331 BC.
March 10th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
You know what would be a way better swashbuckler-video-game-adaptation? Monkey Island. Not a fraction as serious, but it’d be a blast to watch.
March 10th, 2006 at 1:59 pm
2 Player Mode CONTRA would be a sweet video game adaptation. You could cast Arnold and the Rock and they’d basically go around doing flips while holding gattling guns and destroying everything in sight.
March 10th, 2006 at 3:02 pm
Every video game adaptation that I can think of (that I have seen) has been pretty terrible. Here’s to hoping this one is an exception.
March 12th, 2006 at 11:24 am
yo just get to makin the movie for god sakes……prince of persia would make a better movie trilogy than any video game out there…..it would be better than tomb raider or halo ….its a fantastic trilogy as everyone knows and its mad annoying its taking so long for this great game to become a movie and all these sucky games like silent hill, doom,and bloodrayne are officially announced and theyre not even worth a damn dime! …..Bruckheimer needs to take some of probably the little time he has and push for the production of the Sands of Time…it would be the first video game based movie that actually would be worth my money
March 13th, 2006 at 6:30 pm
seriously, the cinemas for Sands of Time were better than most game-to-movies I’ve seen. I can’t wait to see how this turns out; I bet it’s going to be amazing/huge/wicked cool.
March 16th, 2006 at 2:45 pm
Isn’t there a website from Jordan Mechner? Or another site where there’s more info about the Prince of Persia movie. I’d like to get more information about how the progress is going and not a few answers on bad questions. It really should be time to get that movie started.
March 16th, 2006 at 3:55 pm
My vote to play the prince goes to Oded Fehr.
March 27th, 2006 at 1:24 am
{QUOTE}Just a minor correction on your comment that Babylon doesn’t have anything to do with Persia. In the game, Babylon is the capital of the Persian Empire. This dates it to the time of Darius I, circa 500BC. Here is the relevant quote from Wikipedia entry on Babylon:
Under Cyrus and his heir Darius I, Babylon became the capital city of the 9th Satrapy (Babylonia in the south and Athura in the north), as well a centre of learning and scientific advancements. In Achaemenid Persia, the ancient Babylonian arts of astronomy and mathematics were revitalised and flourished, and Babylonian scholars completed maps of constellations. Overall the city being the administrative capital of the Persian Empire (the preeminent power of the then known world), played a vital part in the history of that region for over two centuries. To date, many important archeological discoveries have been being made that can provide a better understanding of that era, not only in regards to the role of Babylon and the Persian Empire, but perhaps the history of its earlier inhabitants as well[2][3].
The early Persian kings had attempted to maintain the religious ceremonies of Marduk, but by the reign of Darius III, over-taxation and the strains of numerous wars led to a deterioration of Babylon’s main shrines and canals, and the disintegration of the surrounding region. Despite three attempts at rebellion in 522 BC, 521 BC, and 482 BC, the land and city of Babylon remained solidly under Persian rule for two centuries, until Alexander the Great’s entrance in 331 BC.{UNQUOTE}
Acteully my friend you are very wrong. 1.Babylon was NOT the capital of the Persian Empire, ever heard of Perseoplis or Parsargarda? While Babylon was an important city in the Persian empire it was NOT the capital, more of a winter retreat for the Shahanshah from the snowy enviorment of ancient Iran.(it actuelly still snows in Iran, but mostly in the north) Also, dont put to much trust in Wiki, becuase poeple tend to edit things on there and while it can be a good thing, it can also be bad so try and actuelly get some books on the Persian empire before you trust a website. ;)
2.Cyrus’s direct heir was his son Cambayes(sp?)not Darius, who had to fight a brutal civil war to get to the throne after Cambayes was assinated.(A fact most people dont know)
3.Both the game and most likely the movie take place in 9th century Iran, when the Persian Empire and Babylon were long gone and Iran was divided into many small vassel kingdoms of the Abbasid(and later Ummayad(sp?)) Arabs. UBISOFT made a big mistake in making the Prince’s home Babylon, especially if you pay attention to what the prince is saying in SOT you’ll see he says he from a place called Shiraz.(which is infact a real place in Iran and was one of these vassel states)
April 19th, 2006 at 6:25 am
It may be no good, but gamer developers, like poets, have the license to twist history, methinks. What I find thoroughly irritating is the shift in the “core” of the game – from romance to mindless violence that Ubisoft have wreaked on the game, post-Sands of Time.
On a tangential note, any guesses on whether there will be a Prince of Persia 7? And whether it will link up the unanswered question at the end of PoP 2 (The Shadow and the Flame – the sudden appearance of the witch at the very end) to the happenings since then???