Alright, that was mean of us. Never fear, for the delightful Prince of Persia we fell in love with at E3 is still set for a Holiday 2008 release on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. The one headed to movie theaters, however, has been pushed back a year to May 28, 2010, according to ComingSoon.net. Reasons for the delay were not made apparent.

In case you haven't been keeping up with the project, have at these pertinent Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time facts:

• It stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina.
• It's produced by Jerry "more 'splosions" Bruckheimer.
• It's directed by a man who's having his assistant play the game.
• It's "not a video game movie."
• It is a movie based on a video game.
  

Jerry Bruckheimer's Prince of Persia adaptation has picked up two more high-profile actors. Alfred Molina and Ben Kingsley have been cast, according to Variety. They join the previously announced Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arteron who play Dastan, the 6th-century Persian prince, and Tamina, respectively.

Molina will portray Sheik Amar, who becomes a mentor to Dastan and shows him how to use metallic tentacle arms to his advantage. Kingsley's role is currently unknown, though /Film is predicting he'll portray the villain Vizier (that's assuming they retain any of the PoP storyline). Although the casting of the prince is complete, we're still hoping actor, swordfighter and actual Persian prince David Zandi uses his magical time-bending dagger to somehow nab the lead role.

[Via Cinematical]

The transition between video game and film is typically no different than one of those trap-laden corridors Ubisoft's princely protagonist dashes through on a regular basis. Though we yearn to say otherwise, Disney's Prince of Persia: Sands of Time film hasn't shown to be particularly adept at running the gauntlet. Coupling mega producer Jerry Bruckheimer's involvement with director Mike Newell's promise (of having his assistant play through the game) leads us to believe that the crew has fallen into the very first pit and succumbed to one of those spinning blade thingies.

Still, we'd best give them a chance to finish shooting in Morocco this June, which Variety notes will have a positive effect on the North African film business. Scenes for the Jeffrey Nachmanoff- and Jordan Mechner-written project will also be filmed at the UK's Pinewood Shepperton studios. Cross your fingers and hope for something more than a literal explosion of bullet-time sword fights, churlish chariot chases and liberal lingering on Farah's faucets.

If you're curious to know how Prince of Persia became a film, series creator and movie screenwriter Jordan Mechner spoke with GameDaily to talk about how he went about pitching the idea to Disney, who told him he needed a producer like Jerry Bruckheimer, and then how he took that to mean "pitch to Jerry Bruckheimer" and subsequently won him over. Mechner described writing the screenplay as a 21-month process (three months for first draft, 18 months of revisions), "not counting the 15 years of preparation before that," he said.

Said Mechner about changes from the game's plot, "If I'd tried to adapt the game's storyline beat for beat into a screenplay, we would have wound up with a 'B'-level survival-horror movie about a warrior prince who spends most of his time fighting off ravaging, zombie-like sand creatures -- basically, Resident Evil in the desert." Did he just call the Resident Evil films B-level? Oh snap!

MTV wasn't kidding when the company said it had $500 million to blow in two years. Their "next big thing" is this: Hollywood mega-über producer Jerry Bruckheimer has signed a deal to produce games with MTV. Bruckheimer and MTV will create a co-owned studio that, instead of cashing in on the latest summer 'splosion smash, is actually expected to create new intellectual properties; the movie studios typically own the rights to the films Bruckheimer produces. Games produced by this new studio will feature Bruckheimer's name prominently (for example: Jerry Bruckheimer presents Mega-explosion FPS Ninja Pirate Adventure 4).

There are currently no announced games; no particular genres defined for the new studio; heck, there isn't even a name yet. At this point, Bruckheimer wants to make games and, historically, wherever Bruckheimer goes, success isn't far behind. And neither are explosions.

Read – Variety: Bruckheimer goes gaming in MTV pact
Read – GameDaily: Bruckheimer launches studio with MTV
Read – MTV: Bruckheimer interview
Read – MTV: MTV Games' Jeff Yapp interview

Mike Newell had only been at the helm of the upcoming Prince of Persia movie for five days when he started insisting that it was a great story first, and a video game movie .. well, not at all. "It's not a video game movie," Newell told Rotten Tomatoes. "It's a great story. If you had read the script, you would know that it wasn't a video game. It's very exciting and it's immensely romantic and it's like Lost Horizon. It takes you to somewhere you've never been."

Sure, that doesn't fill us with loads of confidence, but if you consider the "video game movie" canon, we can't blame him for wanting to distance his film from that pile of wickedness. Besides, if you're worried about him staying true to the series, Rotten Tomatoes reports he "has an assistant playing the video games to brief him on key details" ... so you're completely justified in your concern. Well done.

[Thanks, Hashbrown_Hunter]