Pitching Prince of Persia
Jordan Mechner has posted the game-footage trailer we used when we pitched the feature film version of Prince of Persia to the studios six years ago.
Most movie pitches don’t involve video, but with PoP, most of the studio executives weren’t familiar with the game at all, so it became an important way to introduce them to both the franchise and the world. As Jordan notes in his post, this trailer doesn’t really tell the story of the movie, but it does give a sense of the characters and style: the dashing prince’s acrobatics, the devoted priestess/princess, the dagger with its time-reversing slickness.
Jordan and I pitched seven studios over two days. Each time, the presentation was pretty much identical.
- Introductions. Apologies for keeping us waiting. (1 minute)
- John hyping Jordan’s prestigious videogame background. (1:00)
- Play the video. (2:10)
- Jordan describes the world of the Persian empire, using artwork. (:30)
- John pitches Prince Dastan, using artwork of him. (:30)
- John and Jordan alternate pitching story, introducing character/prop artwork as new things come up. (6:00)
- Questions about story, tone and scale. “Somewhere between Pirates and Raiders. It’s not Lawrence of Arabia.”(3:00)
- Promises that they’ll follow up. (1:00)
Altogether, we could get through the pitch in less than 20 minutes. Disney liked it, and sent us to Jerry Bruckheimer’s company, who bought it from Jordan. The film comes out next May.
Here’s the trailer we used for the pitch. The actual trailer for the movie is ridiculously good, and should be out before too long.
Prince of Persia movie pitch trailer (2003) from jordan mechner on Vimeo.
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October 13th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Thanks for the Pitch breakdown – I’ve read the script (it’s fun) – how much influence did you have in the writing?
October 13th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Awesome. How much prep went into this? What was the back and forth like between you and Jordan? How did you divide up the work/break the story?
Thanks.
October 13th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
How did you present the trailer? Did you bring in one of those travel dvd players or trust that their machine was hooked up and somebody would know how to use it? Nothing more awkward and buzz killing than four people trying to get a dvd to play.
October 13th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
@Chris:
I oversaw Jordan’s drafts, but did no writing. I liken the process to piloting an airplane without being allowed to touch the controls. And by “liken,” I mean that I did not really like it. But Jordan is excellent, and he and collaborated on other projects after that.
@Murray:
We rehearsed a lot, and practice-pitched it for friends and agents. We were probably 50/50 by the end. No one person kept speaking for more than a minute.
@Johnny:
When our agents set up the meeting, we told them we needed to show them a DVD. Every conference room at the studios can do that, because they need to watch footage/dailies all the time. But we also had it on a laptop, which was ready to play.
October 13th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
I like it, but does it have to be set in Persia? And could it be set in modern times?
Seriously, though, just one quick question. You mentioned that Bruckheimer Films bought it, but who now owns the rights? Is it Disney or Bruckheimer? Just curious. Thanks.
October 13th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Hey John, Just a question regarding the ever bamboozling copyright- At this point in time, the rights for the game weren’t yet bought, correct? This was a pitch to encourage the studios to do that. Is it okay to utilize copyrighted footage such as the game trailer, the music in an instancee where it is for pitching purposes? I’ve written a spec script that I hope to direct and am planning on self-funding a short trailer myself to show what sort of thing I’m going for and giving a more acute and pointed representation of my ability in the genre. I planned on utilizing a piece of Morricone score for it, however. Would this fly? Would I need to purchase the Morricone rights to use it in a pitch trailer? Or is that something the studios work out? Because the piece would no doubt be quite expensive… Cheers, Anthony
October 13th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Jordan Mechner himself owned the rights to make a Prince of Persia movie.
For a presentation trailer like this, which we were just showing in a room to a group of people, one generally wouldn’t worry about music rights — unless that music was so fundamental to the project that it would be necessary when making the movie.
October 13th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Thanks, the laptop back-up makes sense. Pitching is fun. I don’t usually use theatrics, but apparently James Cameron had Lance Henrickson dressed as T-800 in the room starring down the execs as he pitched The Terminator.
October 13th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
“Before too long” is too long…..
October 13th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
I liked the games and I’m looking forward to see what you did with the movie. Though woulda been kinda cool if it had been like Lawrence of Arabia :-)
October 13th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
The opening sequence, the look and feel of the Prince – very familiar and a fitting homage to the early Burt Lancaster in The Flame and The Arrow and The Crimson Pirate. Thanks for sharing this, John. Fascinating look into the sales process, and a good reminder of the glacial time frames, from pitch to opening weekend. Good luck to all!
October 13th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
All of that over a magical dagger? Well I’m not sold. Last thing Hollywood should make and audiences should see is another movie based on a video game.
October 14th, 2009 at 3:02 am
Jake Gyllenhaal? Sort of interesting choice… Before checking it on the IMDB, I did a quick “cast” for myself, and came up with the name of Gerrard Butler for the leading role…
October 14th, 2009 at 3:36 am
Interesting use of Machinima in the trailer there – the Machinima community has been theorising for a while that it might be useful as a way to show a not-yet-created movie in a pitch, but no-one’s actually done it. Thanks for the insight!
October 14th, 2009 at 4:10 am
Hi John,
Interesting use of gaming to make a pitch.
Did you know there’s a whole world of film-making on the net using gaming technology, called ‘machinima’.
I think more studios and writers should use this as part of the development footage. It would give them a more visual idea of whether the story will play out. In essence, you can ‘make the film’ before you make the film. And that’s because machinima animation is relatively cheap and quick to make. You don’t even have to use copyrighted gaming footage.
I make machinima drama for the net. Take a look at my website to see what can be achieved.
October 14th, 2009 at 6:29 am
Does anyone but me think pitching something would be harder than writing it? Maybe it’s because I dislike salespeople of all kinds, dislike anyone telling me what I should get and why, so I’d hate to be in that position of trying to sell. It seems pitching and writing are stellar opposites.
How do you not be freaking terrified? That’s the only shot you’ve got. John (or anyone else) have you sold stuff where the pitch went really bad but the script was great so they didn’t care?
October 14th, 2009 at 7:44 am
Jake Gyllenhaal is actually as close a fit as you’re going to find to the Prince in his Sands of Time incarnation. The PoP games since then have increasingly buffed the character up and generally made him a bit more of an identikit tough-guy, which is not really as interesting – and that version is more Gerard Butler, I guess. It’s great that the movie seems to be sticking more to Jordan Mechner’s original conception of him as a kind of modern-day Douglas Fairbanks type hero.
October 14th, 2009 at 8:34 am
Great post. I would be so brilliant if you, even in bullet point form gave us a run down of what you said in each segment e.g. with item 6. ‘John and Jordan alternate pitching story, introducing character/prop artwork as new things come up. (6:00)’ or with point 7. ‘What was included and left ou7.Questions about story, tone and scale. “Somewhere between Pirates and Raiders. It’s not Lawrence of Arabia.”(3:00). If you don’t want to be specific perhaps you or your readers could illustrate with a known finished movie what might be put forward. That would be so helpful and provide some much more insight. Otherwise a great post as ever. Charlie Salem
October 14th, 2009 at 8:47 am
The posters have been up at my local cine’ for almost a month now and believe it or not… Jake looks exactly flawless in the gear. Its pretty amazing. – I can’t wait.
October 14th, 2009 at 9:30 am
What a great pitch tool: video game as story board.
October 14th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Thanks John.
October 14th, 2009 at 11:20 am
Can you talk at all about how you came up with story ideas? Because my biggest beef with that game is that there wasn’t much of a story. That and I kept falling to my death over and over.
October 14th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
@Emily Blake:
I can’t talk much about story without revealing story points. When it’s out, I’ll be able to talk more about it.
October 14th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Oh… and John…
Two things:
a) Was the process similar to a collaborative pitch with a director? b) Was it better?
(off topic) When did you decide to shave it all off? I have wispy patches that hide most of the thinning (without having the comb over look… I hope). I’m fairly certain the thinness is prominent at the crown, although I haven’t looked back there lately. Out of sight, out of mind my mother always said.
I think I want to shave it down, but I also don’t want to lose ‘the fingers through the hair’ feel too early (I’m 28).
For us soon-to-be baldies, when is the right time to bruce willis your ass?
October 15th, 2009 at 7:06 am
Hello
I am a amateur film maker and have done a lot of work on machinima’s, even won a competition for best machinima by rockstar games,
The video attached is pretty interesting and gave a good sense of the tone of the film, very interesting to know the actual mechanics of a pitch…
October 15th, 2009 at 11:45 am
How did Jordan acquire the rights to the game? What were his intentions when he made the purchase. I’m quite curious as to the benefits and costs of a writer personally buying an established property to adapt himself.
October 15th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
I have to say I am fascinated to see the finished product. I think The Sands of Time is an absolutely superb game. Were you a fan of the game when you started the project John?
October 15th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Oh no, not on vimeo! how will the chinese view this?!
October 15th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
@Ben:
Jordan created Prince of Persia. He owned the rights already.
October 16th, 2009 at 10:58 am
I’m so relieved to see that ‘Sands of Time’ was what you guys went in the room with. As a fan of the Prince I thought the ‘Sands’ game did an incredible job to modernise the series with the new acrobatics etc but hang on to the charm and visual design Jordan started the series with. The darker tones of the later games really undermined them for me and I was so concerned the film would head in that darker direction.
Really looking forward to this. It was being post-produced above my office and I’m guessing I’ve heard every foley effect in the film played on loop at high volume which almost sent me insane at the time.
I have faith, John, that the aural assault will be worth it in the end!
October 18th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Btw it’s so heartening to hear of a case where the creator of the game held onto the rights. Nine times out of ten it’d be some game publisher suit bleating on about “our property” without any feel for what made it a great IP in the first place. Hope this is a massive success for you guys!
October 28th, 2009 at 10:41 am
Great “Trailer”. I don’t know but I thought that there is new material of the movie. :)
October 28th, 2009 at 11:53 am
I agree, Im excited to see the actual trailer when the time comes. I certainly hope the movie involves a LOT of falling down into pits, since thats pretty much my momory of playing the game itself :) -Ben