News > Gyllenhaal is "Prince of Persia"

The big news of the day is that Jake Gyllenhaal has been confirmed to play the title character in "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time," along with up-and-coming British starlet Gemma Arterton ("Quantum of Solace," "RocknRolla"). Mike Newell, known for such successes as "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and such failures as "Love in the Time of Cholera," will be directing. Jerry Bruckheimer will produce the video game adaptation.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Gyllenhaal will play Dastan, a young prince in 6th century Persia who must join forces with Tamina (Arterton), a feisty and exotic princess, to prevent a villainous nobleman from possessing the Sands of Time, a gift from the gods that can reverse time and allow its possessor to rule the world."

Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard, Jordan Mechner and Boaz Yakin wrote the screenplay, based on the games by Mechner.

Just speaking from my own experiences with the computer game, I don't think this is worth the considerable money that will be put into it (Bruckheimer says, "It's not one of our smaller productions"). I think they might have another "Speed Racer"-type debacle on their hands, though Gyllenhaal might be a bit more marketable than Emile Hirsch. 

-David Morgan