Jordan Mechner hosted a panel about talent (mostly writers and actors) crossing the "digital divide" between film and TV and video games. Sadly, they didn't drop any information about the Prince of Persia movie. For the most part, the panel covered familiar and expected territory. Yuri Lowenthal, voice of the Prince in several Prince of Persia games, said that the crossover is fairly easy for actors, although he would like for the actors to be more involved in the development process, if possible.
Writer Flint Diller (The Transformers Game, Dead to Rights, and several more) said that as far as writers are concerned, you have to have a sense of humor going in with the underlying knowledge that,"This is gonna be a long, bumpy ride." He also said that you can't compare it to screenwriting, and if you try you'll find yourself very disappointed.
The official website of film production company Legendary Pictures has recently been updated to reflect a Diablo movie entering development alongside the previously announcedWorld of Warcraft film. As far as game-to-film adaptations go, Blizzard's demonic role-player probably represents one of the better properties to mine, certainly ranking above The Sims and Dead or Alive. Examining the group's lineup of completed films, which includes Batman Begins and 300, vaguely instills some confidence in this adaptation, but we think you'll find the hands of movie executives usually have a way of wringing that out of you.
No other information about the Diablo film has been disclosed, though it seems a fair guess that it'll have the eponymous villain attempting to wreck the world, only to be foiled by a floating arrow constantly jabbing at his head. Blizzard was unavailable for comment at the time of writing -- presumably off shoving large jewels into their skulls.
You know, if you have nothing else to do. According to ComingSoon.net, Disney has already scheduled a release date for its game-to-something-vaguely-adhering-to-the-characteristics-of-cinema adaptation, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Arriving on July 10th, 2009, the film will presumably spring from the world established by Ubisoft's modern Prince of Persia trilogy and then be run through the standard movie exec alteration gauntlet.
Not much is known about the film, save for its alleged incorporation of Parkour and its involvement with Jerry "Needs More Splosions" Bruckheimer. Michael Bay's directorial sledgehammer has been eyed for the film, but no official announcement on the subject has been made. There's a feint chance of the film turning into a charming and boisterous adventure along the lines of Pirates of the Caribbean, but the realistic expectation is to leave the cinema complaining about the abundance of car chases and Eva Mendez's poor rendition of "Look, a crack!"
Latino Review, who always manages to nab early script reviews, has recently taken a look at the Prince of Persiamovie and given it an overwhelmingly positive A-.
Though the review attempts to abstain from spoilers, it does mention the script specifically calling for Parkour, a French physical art form that emphasizes momentum and efficient movement. You might remember seeing it in the French action flick District B13 or Casino Royale. It also fits really well given the Prince's acrobatic nature.
The Prince of Persia film is being developed by Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer, who managed to take a theme park ride and turn it into one of the highest grossing movie trilogies of all time. Can they work the same magic with a video game adaptation? With Michael Bay? The sands of time are trickling, and it looks like this movie is moving along.
OK purists, let's keep it together. For the XBLA release of Prince of Persia Classic, expected in early summer, Gameloft and Ubisoft have slapped a beautiful fresh coat of paint on the classic 1989 title. That may not make the purists so mad as the prince ditched his classic turban for his Sands of Time look. Yup, Prince of Persia Classic has the prince in his post-turban, but pre-emo (Warrior Within) look, so at least there's some consolation.
Allegedly everything else but the graphics will remain the same including level design, combat and -- oh gawd help us -- controls. For the youngin' in the room who never played the original, you haven't experienced pain until you've tried tackling the original Prince of Persia's unforgiving controls. Yes, it is truly painful, more painful than every time the faux-metal music played in Warrior Within. Still can't figure out what they were thinking there -- but it sold well!
Think $20 is a good price for a greatest hit. How's a couple of bucks suit you?
Ubisoft is redefining the term "budget software" with the recent British release of three classic (read: old) PC games for just £1 (about $2 US). Thanks to the super-low price, Rayman 2: The Great Escape, Brothers In Arms: Road To Hill 30 and Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time all made the ChartTrack top 10 for the week despite their age. In an interview with MCV, a ChartTrack analyst predicted similarly-priced re-releases would follow suit from a variety of publishers.
It makes you wonder -- if a couple of bucks is enough to cover manufacturing, packaging, shipping and retail space for these reissues, why do downloadable console and arcade classics that have none of these costs routinely go for more than twice as much?
Film site IESB reports that Disney is hoping Michael Bay, after finishing up Transformers, will helm the film adaptation of Prince of Persia. With frequent Bay producer Jerry Bruckheimer already signed on for the project, we expect the Armageddon director will take the job.
The Bruckheimer-Bay duo has brought us some entertaining (Bad Boys, The Rock) and not-so entertaining (Pearl Harbor) films, but there are some prevalent themes in all of their collaborations. Prince of Persia, heavy on explosion and light on character development and plot, is expected for a Summer 2009 release and, if successful, to become a franchise.
Get ready for two big words. The German Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) ratings board recently tested a game called Prince of Persia Classic -- it received a +12 years of age rating. The Germans were being kind giving it that rating considering the difficulty level of the original game; they're sparing young gamers a lot of grief. Players who are old enough -- or unlocked this classic in their copy of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time -- know what we're talking about.
We wait to see when the American ESRB rates the game to confirm that it's not some kind of Europe-only XBLA exclusive. Having the original Prince of Persia on XBLA will show those young whippersnappers how good and easy they've had it since the Sands of Time.
ComingSoon has posted new images and concept art for several upcoming Disney films, almost all of which are likely to be adapted into stunningly derivative and altogether depressing video games. One of the movies, however, signifies the reverse situation of having been a game first -- a very good one, in fact. The cinematic adaptation of Ubisoft's acrobatically inclined Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, will be produced by Jerry "Needs More Splosions" Bruckheimer.
Check out some of the early concept images of the film while you agonize over the many ways in which Jerry can bring the franchise to ruin. Vin Diesel as the Prince? Explosive carriage chases? A soundtrack featuring Usher? A dark and angsty MySpace reimagining that has the protagonist fighting scantily clad warrior women? Wait, that last one sounds familiar somehow...
Murmurs of a Jerry Bruckheimer produced Prince of Persia film have resurfaced, buzzing about Bruckheimer and Disney working to mold Ubisoft's game franchise into a successor to the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy; set to conclude in May. One source even speculates that the Prince could hit the big screen as early as summer 2008.
When Bruckheimer and company first seized the Prince of Persia film rights in 2004, the goal was to adapt elements of the game world, rather than directly translate 2003's The Sands of Time. It's unclear if that direction has since changed, as the game series has evolved into a port-able trilogy.
Ubisoft, intent on continuing their new tradition of shoehorning just about every intellectual property they can muster onto the Wii, has created a video demonstratingPrince of Persia: Rival Swords' use of the Wii controls.
In an interview with Ubisoft concerning the project ("intuitive" word count: 2), producer Ben Mattes gushed with excitement, saying "I've spent a lot of time playing [Prince of Persia] games over the last few years, and Rival Swords for the Wii is by far my favorite."
The demonstration itself is a montage of in-game clips, accompanied by haunted Wii controllers jiggling about the footage. I suppose we'll just have to wait until the games release in March to get a sense of just how well it plays as waggling the controller in place of the Two Thrones control scheme (the game in which this is based on) doesn't exactly instill us with confidence. Ben seems fairly stoked about it, but Splinter Cell and Far Cry has us a bit more cautious towards Ubisoft's non-original offerings for the Wii.
Ubisoft's betting you're familiar with 2005's Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. So the publisher has cleverly tweaked the name for its Wii release. Now it's Prince of Persia: Rival Swords. But wait ... it's got Wii controls! Lame.
It's clear that Ubisoft is testing the waters, seemingly asking itself: how little is enough to succeed on Wii? Indeed, why waste development costs on new content when you can dig yesteryear's game outta the crate, tack on some wrist-flicking action, and push it back out to retail? True, Rival Swords has multiplayer modes and new quick-play levels (confirmed for PSP version); but let's not kid ourselves, this is Two Thrones all over again.
Ubisoft isn't the first company to re-release a product with some new features, but the name change certainly feels deceptive; and in general, offerings like Rival Swords look to water down Wii's potency. The console's strength is not in finding new ways to play the same old games.
Future Gamez has confirmed that Ubisoft is working on a new Prince of Persia title for the Nintendo DS, but it doesn't appear to be another card battler like last year's Battles of Prince of Persia.
Australia's Office of Film and Literature Classification added the new game to their online database under the title, Prince of Persia: Rival Blades, for multiple platforms. However, an Ubisoft rep commented that Blades had been an alternate title for The Two Thrones, and the OFLC's listing is a placeholder for a new DS version of the prince's most recent console adventure.
After last week's French slip that Prince of Persia will be making an appearance on the Wii, the company has now confirmed -- in English -- that the game is in fact coming to the console.
A spokesperson for Ubisoft told IGN that PoP will be a Wii title: "I can confirm that a game based on the popular Prince of Persia franchise is one of many titles Ubisoft has in development for Nintendo's Wii. At this time we can not provide an official date for the game or any additional information about it."
There, glad that that's settled. Let the Wiimote use speculation commence.
Apparently, only the French are special enough to get the news that among the other Ubisoft titles announced to hit the Wii console, Prince of Persia will as well.
French gaming site Jeuxpro.com lists that PoP will join the other titles announced earlier to us English-speaking folks. If there was ever a game that could take advantage of the Wii controller, this is it.
While the game won't be a launch title, the site does say that it will be out sometime in March. But wait a second, did the French make a boo boo? 1Up says a rep told them: "We saw this too and Prince of Persia is not confirmed as either a Wii launch title or a title coming out in North America in March 2007 at this time."
We may have to chalk this one up to the usual PR slip up. It would be pretty silly not to expect PoP on the Wii, though.
Think $20 is a good price for a 
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