Prince of Persia Creator Details Original Film Pitch

[Earnest Cavalli]

Prince of Persia Creator Details Original Film Pitch

[vimeo=5323151]​

With the Prince of Persia film in production, series creator Jordan Mechner has taken to his blog to detail the original pitch he offered to Disney executives.

Consisting of a re-cut series of cinematics from Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, the pitch only vaguely resembles the current "Jake Gyllenhal with a deep tan" images [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/87586-First-Video-Footage-Of-Prince-Of-Persia-Movie-Now-Online] so far revealed from the actual film.

Though we may never see the film Mechner envisioned, watching the trailer he compiled is an interesting exercise in "what could have been."

From Mechner's blog [http://jordanmechner.com/blog/2009/10/prince-of-persia-movie-pitch-trailer/]:

Why did I cut a new trailer, instead of using one of the existing game trailers Ubisoft had already produced to market the Sands of Time game? Because the game marketing trailers were very specific about certain story points that weren't in the movie (freeze, fast-forward, sand monsters, visions). Co-producer John August and I didn't want to confuse the execs by showing them a different story from the one we were pitching.

It took me a week to cut on Final Cut Express, in late 2003. Assembling a trailer from existing PS2 game footage was an editing challenge, because key scenes, locations and characters from the movie didn't exist. So rather than attempt to explicitly tell the story of the movie in the trailer, I set out to convey the kind of movie it would be. (Don't worry, there are no spoilers - the trailer reveals nothing about the plot of the movie beyond what's in the game.)

It's apparent that Disney is hoping their PoP film will have the same fantasy appeal -- and marketing clout -- of Pirates of the Caribbean, I would have liked to have seen Mechner's vision, if only because casting Gyllenhal so completely against physical and ethnic type is incredibly distracting.

(Via Destructoid [http://www.destructoid.com/this-is-how-you-pitch-prince-of-persia-to-disney-151732.phtml])

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[Ancientgamer]

Well, the guy needs to learn something about editing with interlaced footage, but other than that very interesting.

 

[SMOKEMNHALO2001]

That's a bad ass pitch. Sadly Hollywood feels like it could do a better job than what a game developer can turn out.

 

[scarab7]

I was actually excited for the PoP movie, then I realized Disney is doing it. What scares me the most about PoP is Disney changing the stories maturity content for the sake of mass appeal. If anyone's watched any of the three Pirates of the Caribbean movies you should get a gist of what I'm saying. I know Pirates was something with less background freeing Disney up to do as they pleased with a interesting concept, but in my eyes the plot failed. Disney and deep source material makes me very skeptical. I have the bad feeling that I'm to re-experience the mixture of excitement and confusion of the whole Pirates trilogy with the PoP movie, but more confusion and less excitement. I guess I'll at least read the reviews and see what Movie Bob gives it when it comes to theaters.

 

[A Weary Exile]

Why does Hollywood like to screw up good things?

[small]Except Watchmen. Good job Snyder.[/small]

 

[Bayushi_Kouya]

God. Damn. It.

I was talking this movie up for MONTHS prior to this, and now I'm going to look like an idiot. There's no Sands of Time? That's 99% of the reason to be excited about this flick. Now it's not going to be in? Where're my rusty nails, someone's eyeballs need intruding upon.

Still, I suppose I should be happy that a film using the Middle East as a setting is happening and isn't some preachy award-bait talking about racism, extremism, or something about oil. That's a godsend in and of itself. I am of the opinion that movies could use some rollicking good fantasy/swashbuckling action. I'm just monumentally disappointed that there will be no Sands of Time.

And I swear to God, the next person to winge about American and British actors being cast in the lead roles, they get strangled. Grow up and deal, Disney always casts star power ahead of skin color. They're very egalitarian that way.

 

[domicius]

Any PoP movie will be vindication for Mechner. I'm just happy that his dream will come true, even 20 years later.

 

[Macar]

Persians aren't actually all that dark, I'm not sure what the problem is, as the game protagonist was blue eyed and quite pale.