We’ve just been sent the first image of Jeremy Irvine as Pip in Mike Newell’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expecations.

We recently saw Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham and now we have a look at Irvine in his role as Pip. Newell is in the middle of shooting the film now and the cast is suitably impressive, along with Irvine we have Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes, Jason Flemyng and Sally Hawkins. Irvine will next be seen leading Steven Spielberg’s tear-jerker War Horse  David Nicholls has adapted Dickens’ classic tale and Newell arrives fresh from his recent blockbuster Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

The synopsis looks like this,

Young orphan Pip is given a chance to rise from his humble beginnings thanks to a mysterious benefactor. Moving through London’s class ridden world as a gentleman, Pip uses his new found position to pursue the beautiful Estella; a spoilt heiress he’s loved since childhood. Yet the shocking truth behind his great fortune will have devastating consequences for everything he holds dear.

Here’s the pic,

Helena Bonham Carter seems to be able to pull off the Queen of Darkness look with ease – you only need to watch her performance as Bellatrix Lestrange in one of the Harry Potter films to see it – and it looks like she’ll be taking advantage of that in her upcoming role as Miss Havisham in Mike Newell’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ well-known novel, Great Expectations.

The first images of Bonham Carter as the bride left at the altar in her youth, who has worn her wedding dress ever since through the succeeding three decades, have now appeared over at Deadline, and they’re pretty excellent.

As you can imagine, the look has a slightly Tim Burton-esque feel, with Bonham Carter in her darkened mansion, sitting by her desk, looking more than a little bit terrifying – if you were the young Pip, you’d be pretty damn nervous walking into that room.

BAFTA-winning director Mike Newell, whose credits include Four Weddings And A Funeral and Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, is at the helm of this adaptation, with David Nicholls, writer of the novels of One Day and Starter For 10 (as well as their film adaptations), penning the script.

Alongside Bonham Carter is a pretty great cast that includes Ralph Fiennes as the escaped convict Magwitch, Jason Flemyng and Sally Hawkins as Mr. and Mrs. Joe Gargery, Robbie Coltrane as Mr. Jaggers, Ewen Bremner as Wemmick, and the young stars Jeremy Irvine as the protagonist, Pip, and Holliday Grainger as his love interest, and Miss Havisham’s adopted daughter, Estella.

The BBC Films-backed adaptation is due to come out about this time next year, with filming scheduled to finish by Christmas. Before then, we can look forward to seeing Bonham Carter collaborating once more with Tim Burton and Johnny Depp on Dark Shadows, due out on 11th May next year. Without further ado, here are the two first images from Newell’s adaptation. (If you want to see them in full size, you can click over to Deadline and click the individual images; the files are literally too big for me to upload.)

On the fifteenth of July, 2011, the highest grossing film franchise ever will finally come to an end. Spanning ten years, eight movies, four directors and a worldwide box-office gross of over six billion dollars – the Harry Potter film franchise will draw to a close with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, as Harry faces off against He Who Must Not Be Named for the very last time.

Billed as The Motion Picture Event of a Generation, we at HeyUGuys wouldn’t want anybody to miss out. As such, here’s our recap of fourth book in the franchise, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. So, without further ado, previously on Harry Potter…

Something wicked this way comes.

Returning to Hogwarts after attending the Quiddich World Cup with the Weasleys, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) is looking forward to a year without incident. With Hogwarts hosting the Triwizard Tournament, the school welcomes students from the Durmstrang Institute and Beauxbatons Academy of Magic for the duration of the competition. When the time comes to appoint each school’s competitor, however, Harry’s name is called as an unexpected fourth contender. Acting as a binding magical contract, Harry has no option but to enter the competition and compete with the other, older and more experienced students.

Jealous of Harry’s apparently endless fame, Ron (Rupert Grint) severs ties with The Boy Who Lived and refuses to aid him in the tournament, forcing Hermione “I’m not an owl” Granger (Emma Watson) into the unfortunate role of intermediary. Left to overcome a dragon, navigate a lake-full of merpeople and beat his competition to the centre of an enchanted maze, Harry nevertheless succeeds in making it to the Triwizarding cup first. Deciding to share his success with fellow Hogwarts competitor – Cedric Diggory (Robert Pattinson) – they are unexpectedly transported to an unfamiliar graveyard. Revealed to be the doing of one of Voldermort’s (Ralph Fiennes) Death Eaters, Harry watches as Cedric is murdered and his own blood taken to resurrect the Dark Lord. Escaping back to Hogwarts with Cedric’s body, it is discovered that that new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Alistair Moody (Brendan Gleeson), had been kidnapped prior to the onset of the school and replaced by a Death Eater in disguise tasked with leading Harry to the Dark Lord.

Mike Newell took over from Alfonso Cuarón for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, his desire to make a traditional British boarding school movie bringing a new flavour to Hogwarts. Cutting out more subplots than ever before – the Quiddich World Cup is introduced but never shown while Hermione’s S.P.E.W. crusade is dropped entirely – the Goblet of Fire often feels rushed and incomplete. Required to introduce an unwieldy number of new characters as a result of the Triwizarding tournament, a number of the film’s cast are sidelined almost completely to make room, this being the first film to skip Harry’s summer vacation at the Dursley’s.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire still has a lot going for it however, the Triwizarding tournament paving the way for some of the franchise’s most thrilling sequences to date. While it has been largely trivial uses of magic which have impressed to date – an enchanted car here, some vanishing glass there – Newell’s fourth instalment provides our first indication of exactly what wizards are capable of. The dragon chase is spectacular, while the underwater sequences are quite simply breathtaking. Furthermore, the inclusion of the Yule Ball casts each of the three friends in a new light, the social awkwardness and teenage hangups proving welcomingly familiar in a world of exploded aunts and talking fireplaces. It is the final reveal of Voldermort which impresses most, however, with Ralph Fiennes breathing some real menace into the character, a brilliantly creepy (and noseless) embodiment of pure evil.

It is testament to Newell – and, by extension, Rowling too – that four movies in the franchise still proves so awe-inspiringly magical. As the winged horses carrying the Beaubaton students glide into view, the boat housing the Durmstrang pupils rises from the depths of the Black Lake and Mad Eye Moody hoists himself into the Hogwarts grounds, Newell’s eye for the epic really comes to the fore. While Fiennes’ introduction of Voldermort is undoubtedly the performance of a half-life, it was Miranda Richardson’s turn as the slimy-sexy Rita Skeeter that really left my inner fanboy aflutter. Tragically left out of the following film, Skeeter is everything I wanted her to be and more.

With so much ultimately lost in translation, Newell’s Goblet of Fire is the easy target for criticism. Frenetic, informal and lovingly lensed – I mean, it’s utterly gorgeous – however, the film serves its purpose in the franchise with such gusto that one small Quiddich World Cup seems a small price to pay. It really is to the credit of producer David Heyman that each new director – a variable about to settle with the arrival of David Yates – has managed to bring something new and important to the franchise. In Newell’s case, that something is a truly iconic villain, the creation of which will undoubtedly stand the test of time as one of cinema’s best.

Homenum Revelio: Dutiful house-elf turned depressed alcoholic, Winky, is edited out with the fourth book’s S.P.E.W subplot. The filmmaker’s apparent disdain for the acquired house-elf taste would later be vetoed by Rowling, who insisted Kreacher appear in the next film so as to prevent the filmmakers from painting themselves into a corner.

Lumos: In the Pensieve scene, if you pay close attention you can glimpse an arrangement of symbols that will later be revealed to signify the Deathly Hallows.

Check up with the other films so far in the Harry Potter Retrospective here.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows^TM – Part 2 is in cinemas now

Harry Potter Years 1-7: Part 1 Box Set is available on Blu-ray and DVD now

Rowan Joffe’s adaptation of Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock is currently playing in cinemas across the country and there is news tonight of his next feature film project.

Back in 2007 it was announced that Tom Hanks’ production company Playtone had begun developing the story of Eddie Chapman, better known to the world as Agent Zigzag, a double agent trained by the Nazis who began to work against Germany in 1942. There is plenty of espionage, betrayal, adventure and seduction in his story, thus it was almost certain that the book by Ben MacIntyre entitled Agent Zigzag:  Lover, Traitor, Hero, Spy would be picked up. Joffe has been unveiled by Deadline as the man to bring Chapman’s story to the screen.

Mike Newell, recently announced as developing an adaptation of Great Expectations, is set to direct the film and this is not a million miles away from another project Newell was linked to almost exactly a year ago when The Terminal Spy, the story of the mysterious death of former KGB man Alexander Litvinenko in 2006, was being developed by Warner Bros.

Here’s how Ben MacIntyre’s book was advertised in 2007, perhaps when Tom Hardy is done with Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy he might be the man Newell and Joffe look to?

Throughout the decades, Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations has been the subject of a number of film and TV adaptations (including Alfonso Cuarón’s 1998 visually sumptuous modernisation) and now under the guise of seasoned British helmsman Mike Newell, another version is in the works.

The Hollywood Reporter brings news that Newell is readying a new production of the classic in time for Charles Dickens’s bicentenary in 2012, following Screen Daily’s story of last week.

Great Expectations is the story of the orphan Pip, who lives on the English marshes with his sister and brother-in-law and (amongst many other exploits) ends of falling in love with adopted girl Estella despite the class and social differences.

Oscar-winning Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen are the two producers onboard here. Newell’s last big screen offering was the somewhat different in tone Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

Before Mike White placed himself in the Longbourn wilderness to direct a big screen adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a few other names were floating around the internet-o-sphere as potential directors for the film.

Those names may come around again as Deadline are reporting that White has left the project to stumble on without direction.

David O. Russell was slated at one point but left the production before White stepped up, the other names considered were David Slade, Mike Newell and Neil Marshall, and it would be interesting to see if they crop up again as Lionsgate search for a new director.

Once a director is in place casting details will follow and so far only Natalie Portman was linked (then left) the film leaving the iconic literary figures up for grabs. It may just be because of the buzz surrounding Hobo with a Shotgun but I’d love to see Rutger Hauer as Mr Bennett and I can’t deny that I’d love to see Judi Dench reprise her role as Lady Catherine De Bourgh, only with samurai swords.

Grahame-Smith’s alternate literary world has another movie on the way as casting begins for his recent Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

It’s difficult to imagine at this late stage in Harry Potter’s cinematic saga, but once upon a time in a galaxy not that far away Steven Spielberg had some very different plans for the franchise.

The L. A. Times’ Hero Complex is reporting that Spielberg – whose Dreamworks Pictures were initially considered as financial partners for Warner Bros. after they latter secured the film rights to the first four books – had his own priorities for adapting the franchise, some of which proved more attractive than others to the studio’s President and COO, Alan Horn.

“I did think it would be worthwhile for Steven Spielberg to direct. We offered it to him. But one of the notions of Dreamworks’ and Steven’s was, ‘Let’s combine a couple of the books, let’s make it animated,’ and that was because of the [visual effects and] Pixar had demonstrated that animated movies could be extremely successful. Because of the wizardry involved, they were very effects-laden. So I don’t blame them. But I did not want to combine the movies, and I wanted it to be live action.”

Other than the fact that we’d most likely be done by now, the franchise would have also suffered the loss of some truly inspired performances. With the odd exception, the Potter franchise has benefiting from some of the best actor-character continuity in movie history. Having the characters age at a similar rate to audiences and maintaining outstanding internal consistency – there will have been eight movies by franchise’s end – has added an extra dimension to the series, going some way towards making the upcoming Deathly Hallows the ‘Motion Picture Event Of A Generation’ that the promotional campaign is advertising.

Although Christopher Columbus was by no means the best thing to happen to the Harry Potter franchise, he did at least lay the seeds for Alfonso Cuaron, Mike Newell and David Yates to cultivate. Had J. K. Rowling not fought for a British cast and remained as involved in the filmmaking process as she has, it is quite possible that the upcoming releases of Part I and Part II respectively wouldn’t be as anticipated, or the series as revered, as it has been.

We’ve just received word from the powers that be that the jury for the 2011 Orange Wednesday Rising Star Award at this years BAFTA Awards has been chosen and there’s quite a few familiar faces.

This year the jury will include fashion guru turned director, Tom Ford, Actor Peter Sarsgaard, Actress Natascha McElhone, casting director, Lucy Bevan who worked with Peter on An Education, director Mike Newell (Donnie Brasco, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Prince of Persia and the Sands of Time), Jamie Graham, deputy editor from Total Film and Robbie Collin, Film Editor for The News of the World, many of whom will be familiar with him on Twitter.  Ben Drew aka Plan B will act as Jury Spokesperson while all the above will be overseen by the Jury Chair, Finola Dwyer (producer – An Education, Me Without You, Backbeat and chair of BAFTA’s Film Committee).

The list goes on but I’ll let you read on if you want to find out more below in the official press release. We also have a short video with Peter Sarsgaard who tells us about his first big break in Boys Don’t Cry and how he enjoyed a good debate over the new rising stars.

Previous winners include Noel Clarke, Shia LaBeouf with the most recent winner at last year’s event being Kristen Stewart. Tradition dictates that the person who won it the previous year present the award to the following winner so will Stewart attend this year? I guess we’ll find out!

So, who are your rising stars of 2011? Let us know in the comments below. For me, it’s Hayley Atwell all the way!

Read on for the full press release:

PLAN B AND TOM FORD JOIN STAR-STUDDED JURY

FOR THE 2011 ORANGE WEDNESDAYS RISING STAR AWARD

Top talent join stars including Natascha McElhone and Peter Sarsgaard on the jury for Orange’s esteemed award

London, 2 November 2010: Last night, Ben Drew, aka Plan B, joined fellow jurors to cast their final votes for the 2011 Orange Wednesdays Rising Star Award longlist. Orange’s accolade for up and coming talent is the only award at the Orange British Academy Film Awards to be voted for by the public. Voting opens when nominees are announced on 10 January 2011, via www.orange.co.uk/bafta

Ben Drew is better known in the music world as award-winning singer Plan B. However, Drew has built a wealth of experience working in the film industry from directing the short film Michelle to acting in films such as Harry Brown alongside Michael Caine, and Noel Clarke’s Adulthood and 4.3.2.1.  In Autumn 2011 Ben will release his directorial debut Ill Manors, a gritty urban drama about respect and survival, set on the streets of East London. The film’s cast reads like a who’s who of the UK’s finest in rising talent, making Ben a natural choice for the Orange Wednesdays Rising Star jury.

Ben Drew comments: “It was a huge honour to be asked to be on the Orange Wednesdays Rising Star Award jury. My experience of casting for Ill Manors gave me an incredible insight into the amazing pool of young talent in the UK and made me feel inspired to create the projects that will allow me to work with them. I have also been lucky enough to star alongside some of these guys over the years so I am looking forward to bringing this insight and inspiration along to the jury.”

Tom Ford is another of this year’s multi-talented jurors, an icon in the world of fashion and highly respected within the film industry after his award-winning directorial debut A Single Man hit our screens this year.

Tom Ford said: “I am honored to have been asked to be on the Orange Wednesdays Rising Star jury. This is such an important award in that it supports the new generation of actors and actresses and also reflects the tastes of the cinema going public – who ultimately are the best ones to judge who they want to see more of on their screens.”

Now in its sixth year, the Orange Wednesdays Rising Star Award has set a standard for identifying talent destined for super stardom. Previous winners include James McAvoy in 2006, Eva Green in 2007, Shia LaBeouf in 2008, Noel Clarke in 2009 and Kristen Stewart in 2010. Potential rising stars were proposed by BAFTA members and film industry insiders to create an initial list of contenders. The jury, consisting of actors, casting directors, film directors, media representatives and chaired by a member of the BAFTA Film Committee, then selects a longlist of eight. These eight will be voted on by Orange Wednesdays customers, who will determine the final five nominees. The nominees will then go up for public vote in January to decide the winner.

Finola Dwyer, jury chair for the award, comments: “We have a very esteemed jury this year from director Tom Ford, who made such a dazzling directing debut last year with A Single Man to Peter Sarsgaard and Ben Drew. Many of the jury have discovered, worked alongside or supported rising stars throughout their careers. The distinguished jury is a reflection of the importance and high regard the film industry places on the Orange Wednesdays Rising Star Award.”

This year’s Orange Wednesdays Rising Star Award jury is made up of:  Ben Drew (director and musician), Lucy Bevan (casting director), Tom Ford (director), Peter Sarsgaard (actor), Natascha McElhone (actress), Mike Newell (director), Laura Symons (publicist), Charles Gant (film journalist), Jamie Graham (Total Film), Larushka Ivan-Zadeh (Metro), Hannah Marriott (Grazia), Geoff Lloyd (Absolute Radio) and Robbie Collin (News of the World). The jury is chaired by Oscar-nominated producer Finola Dwyer.

The award honours a young actor or actress whose talent has inspired popular acclaim from the British public. BAFTA members and the film industry were invited to recommend up and coming performers who have appeared in several feature films, with at least one of those films released in the current awards year, 1 January to 31 December 2010. The award has been renamed the Orange Wednesdays Rising Star award this year, to reflect the new level of involvement that Orange Wednesdays customers will play in deciding upon the final five that will go up for the public vote.

The award was created in honour of Mary Selway, the highly respected BAFTA-winning casting director whose career spanned three decades and over ninety films before she died in 2004. She worked with notable directors such as Steven Spielberg, Roman Polanski, Clint Eastwood and Ridley Scott, contributing to the creation of some of the silver screen’s most memorable characters.

Ends

Following David O Russell’s departure from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (the blood and guts reimagining of the classic Jane Austen novel), Deadline are reporting that two of our own, Mike Newell and Neil Marshall, are possible replacements in the director’s chair.

Although Natalie Portman (followed by Scarlett Johansson) was down to play heroine Elizabeth Bennet alongside The Hangover’s Bradley Cooper as Mr. Darcy, it’s not known whether the two actors will still be attached when a new director is found.

Pajiba’s twitter feed also threw these three names into the rumour mill, Catherine O’Hara as the marvelously obtuse Mrs Bennet, Tilda Swinton for Lady Catherine ‘Do you know who I am?’ De Bourgh and Mia Wasikowska for Elizabeth Bennet.

David Slade is another possible replacement and given his history in horror (30 Days of Night), combined with the huge box office for Twilight Saga: Eclipse, his last venture into that type of material, he could be pretty high on the list.

We’ll keep you updated when we hear who gets the gig.

Last night, I got to spend an evening at the BFI surrounded by dozens of amateur film-makers, all buzzing with excitement at making the shortlist for the 2010 Virgin Media Shorts Awards. In an auditorium packed with 450 cast, crew, journalists and judges, we got to see the 12  finalist entries all desperate to find out who would be crowed the 2010 champion.

The awards were hosted by Danny Wallace who did a wonderful job at keeping the audience entertained in between all of the 12 short movies that were shown on the giant screen in the BFI to rapturous applause. The 12 shorts were picked out of a massive 1600 entries by the judges of the competition which included Actress, Thandie Newton, Directors, Duncan Jones and Mike Newell, Film Critic James King, Executive Director of Digital Entertainment at Virgin Media, Cindy Rose, the Senior Production Executive at the UK Film Council, Chris Collins and finally, the VIP Judge, Ebun Soyinka who won a competition to be on the judging panel.

All of the finalists had fantastic stories to tell and it was amazing and inspiring to see how they did such a great job in a maximum of two minutes and twenty seconds!

My personal favourites were:

Probably directed by Kate Anderson – Synopsis: Mike didn’t know how his life would turn out. He just didn’t expect to end up… here.

Sign Language directed by Oscar Sharpe – Synopsis: Meet Ben – he holds a sign for a living, and he loves his job more than almost anything. But today is his last day.

The Gathering directed by James Cooper – Synopsis: A postman with a very important message to deliver, attempts to organise a mass gathering. But what has he got to say, and will anyone show up?

Audiobook directed by James Spinney – Synopsis: Notoriously short-tempered film actor Chris Ford is preparing to record the audiobook version of his autobiography, leaving young sound engineer Stuart Taylor struggling with uncomfortable frequencies

——————————–

Onto the winners! The judges must have had a torrid time trying to pick one out of the awesome bunch of twelve finalists. The one they didn’t have to worry about was the ‘People’s Choice Award’ which was voted for by over 10 000 people on the Virgin Media Shorts website. The winner of the people’s award and £2000 of filming equipment goes to:

Bus Baby directed by Gino Evans and Jason Wingard – Synopsis: Britain has the largest teen pregnancy rate in Europe. Bus baby tackles the issues facing teenage mothers head on and asks some difficult questions. It is hard hitting yet humorous film.

The overall winner who takes the grand prize of £30 000 to invest in their next project is (my favourite from the evening too)…….

Sign Language directed by Oscar Sharpe – Synopsis: Meet Ben – he holds a sign for a living, and he loves his job more than almost anything. But today is his last day.

I was rather pleased when Sign Language was called out. It was an awesome story that pulled me in from the minute it began and I have to admit I may have shed a tear or two at the ending. Loved it and this made for a very special end to a wonderful night.

Congrats to everyone involved in this wonderful project and roll on 2011! Check out all of the finalists on the Virgin Media Shorts website here.

A year ago or thereabouts, as well as signing up for his latest jaunt around the Caribbean as Captain Jack, Johnny Depp had two other projects in the pipeline.

One was as Tim Burton’s Mad Hatter in the box office behemoth Alice in Wonderland and the other was as Tonto in a Jerry Bruckheimer produced big screen outing for The Lone Ranger.

The real news on the Lone Ranger project would be the casting of the actor to go under the mask as the Ranger, but Deadline are bringing us news that Depp’s Pirates and Rango director Gore Verbinski is saddling up with intent to direct.

Previously Mike Newell was attached to the project, but Verbinski will finish his duties on the Depp starring Rango soon and is looking to the horizon for his next job.

The script Verbinski would be directing comes from Revolutionary Road’s Justin Haythe and with The Green Hornet in our future perhaps the time is right for this one. Personally I’d rather see Depp in something a bit less Bruckheimery for a change.

© Disney

To celebrate the release of Disney’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, we are giving away five copies of the Disney Triple Play pack (Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Copy) to you, our lovely readers!

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is available on Disney Blu-ray, DVD and Triple Play edition that includes a digital copy from 13th September and you can preorder your copy here.

Synopsis: From the team that brought the “PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN” trilogy to the big screen, WALT DISNEY PICTURES and JERRY BRUCKHEIMER FILMS present PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME, an epic action-adventure set in the mystical lands of Persia. A rogue prince (JAKE GYLLENHAAL) reluctantly joins forces with a mysterious princess (GEMMA ARTERTON) and together, they battle dark forces to safeguard an ancient dagger capable of releasing the Sands of Time – a gift from the Gods that can reverse time and allow its possessor to rule the world.

PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME is directed by MIKE NEWELL (“HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE”), the cast includes SIR BEN KINGSLEY and ALFRED MOLINA, and the screenplay is written by DOUG MIRO & CARLO BERNARD adapted from a story by JORDAN MECHNER and BOAZ YAKIN.

To be in with a chance of winning this fabulous prize, all you have to do is answer the following using the form below:

What is the name of Sir Ben Kingsley’s character in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time?

The small print:

• This competition is open to the UK only
• Only one entry per household will be counted
• The competition will close Monday 20th September (release date) at 23.59 GMT
• The winner will be picked at random from entries received

The usual T&Cs can be found here. Good Luck!

COMPETITION NOW CLOSED

For more Disney DVD’s check out: disneydvds.co.uk

© Disney

]]> http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2010/09/06/win-prince-of-persia-the-sands-of-time-on-disney-triple-play/feed/ 0 http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2010/05/28/the-final-clip-from-prince-of-persia-the-sands-of-time/ http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2010/05/28/the-final-clip-from-prince-of-persia-the-sands-of-time/#comments Thu, 27 May 2010 23:56:59 +0000 David Sztypuljak http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/?p=23523

Over here in the UK, we’ve had Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time for an entire week. The US get it tomorrow and to celebrate, Yahoo have released this brand new clip from the movie which is directed by Mike Newell and stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Alfred Molina and Sir Ben Kingsley.

In this new clip, we get to see Jake’s character, Dastan discover the dagger but he’s yet to find out what power it holds.

You can click here to view our rather extensive Prince of Persia coverage including a review and interviews with all the cast.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is the latest movie to be brought to us by Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films, and I was very eager for this latest production to be another hit like Pirates of the Caribbean or National Treasure.

Going into a movie with massively high expectations isn’t always a good thing however as the movie has more potential to let you down.  Read on to find out what I thought.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is based around the computer game designed back in the late 80′s by Jordan Mechner, a man who wrote the first draft of the movie screen story and executive producer on the movie. It’s helmed by British director, Mike Newell, who has a range of different genres under his belt including Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Donnie Brasco and Four Weddings and a Funeral. This latest Disney / Bruckheimer project is by far his biggest undertaking but I’m pleased to report that he did a mighty fine job.

The cast includes Jake Gyllenhaal as our leading man, Prince Dastan, Gemma Arterton as Princess Tamina, Alfred Molina as Sheik Amar and Sir Ben Kingsley as Nizam. We also get to see the debut of young, British actor William Foster who opens the movie with some excellent parkour (free running), bouncing off walls, jumping off high ceilings and running through a market square to avoid being caught. It really is quite an opening and sets the standard for things to come.

Synopsis: From the team that brought the “Pirates of the Caribbean” trilogy to the big screen, Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films present PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME, an epic action-adventure set in the mystical lands of Persia.  A rogue prince (JAKE GYLLENHAAL) reluctantly joins forces with a mysterious princess (GEMMA ARTERTON) and together, they race against dark forces to safeguard an ancient dagger capable of releasing the Sands of Time—a gift from the gods that can reverse time and allow its possessor to rule the world.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, reveals the story of a kid from the street who gets adopted into the royal family after showing courage saving a young boy in a city square. Years pass and we get to see young Dastan all grown up, fighting for Persia alongside his brothers Garsiv (Toby Kebbell), Tus (Richard Coyle) and uncle Nizam (Sir Ben Kingsley). After discovering that a Holy city known as Alamut has been forging swords and other weaponry, weaponry that would be used to attack Persia. Rather than waiting for an imminent attack, The Persians decide to strike the first blow.

With this first blow comes the main opening sequence of the movie called ‘The Attack on Alamut’ and what an opening it is! Watching the creativity of the writers unfold was great, and for me it was a perfect opening sequence, showing the taking of an impenetrable fortress. This sequence was filmed at Pinewood Studios on the James Bond stage and the production value of this scene is excellent. Watching hundreds of horses and hundreds of extras storming towards the city is spectacular. Good so far…..

Now, there is a myth that in Alamut lies a princess who is the most beautiful in the world. Well, they wouldn’t be far wrong as the woman in question is British Hollywood A-Lister in the form of Gemma Arterton as Princess Tamina. Tamina is also the spiritual leader of the City, and holds the most important job in existence, the protector of the the Sands of Time which are hidden within a dagger.

So there’s the back story, so, is the movie any good? I think in a nutshell, it’s not as good as I was hoping it to be, but I did really enjoy it. I actually watched the film twice to make sure that my initial thoughts were valid and watching it for the second time confirmed it. The action sequences are awesome and watching the parkour (of which there are two main sections within the film) is fantastic. Parkour Legend (and Inventor) David Belle choreographed all the free running stunts in the movie and he did a fantastic job. Even down to working with William Foster (young Dastan) who had to perform many of his own stunts and looked like he been doing it for years.

Alfred Molina serves as the comic relief in the movie and in my my opinion is one of the highlights. Wait until you see the Ostrich scene and you’ll see exactly what I mean! Sir Ben Kingsley plays the usual professional part that he always does, with the chemistry between Gemma Arterton and Jake Gyllenhaal working throughout the movie. Now, onto Jake Gyllenhaal’s accent. If you didn’t know already, he uses a British accent, English to be exact, and does a mighty fine job of it. In fact, if you didn’t know that the Hollywood a-lister wasn’t American, then you would come out of the cinema thinking that he was English.

Prince of Persia may suffer from its story being a bit too confusing with our main characters bouncing around Persia or jumping around in the desert without really knowing what their final aim is, and when the finale of the movie comes, it’s a little messy. It’s hard to describe this in full without spoiling the movie so I’ll let you see what you think and you can tell me in the comments section below.

Prince of Persia may be a little confusing in places but ultimately, it’s a wonderful movie with many more positives than negatives. The set design in the movie was excellent. I don’t want to repeat what I said in my Robin Hood review a couple of days ago but again, it was so nice to see money spent on original sets rather than just relying on CGI.

No doubt a second movie will be made and I look forward to seeing it as I’m sure this franchise has a million and one places it could go. It was great to see a computer game turned into something that was thoroughly enjoyable, and I highly recommend a visit to the cinema when it’s released in UK cinemas next Friday, 21st May (today!).

You can keep track of all extensive Prince of Persia coverage here.

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be invited to interview all the main cast of the new Disney / Jerry Bruckheimer movie, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. We also got to interview Mike Newell, the Director and Jordan Mechner who invented the original computer game back in 1989 on the Apple 2 computer.

I’ve already put up the interviews with the Prince of Persia creator, Jordan Mechner, director Mike Newell and the legend that is Sir Ben Kingsley and we still have an interview with Jake Gyllenhaal to come.

Today we have Gemma who plays the beautiful Princess Tamina in the movie. Meeting Gemma was a privilege. And yes, she’s a beautiful lady to look at but much more importantly she’s an absolutely lovely person who loves what she does but is also very shy and insecure in a lot of ways. You’ll see some of those insecurities in the interview below.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is released in UK cinemas this Friday, 21st May and you can check out my review here.

What do you like most about Tamina?

She’s not just a princess. She’s very spiritual and a priestess really. She has real depth, a real soulful side to her. The film is very male dominated with lots of action, and a lot of the characters are quite brutal. She’s this real elegant, graceful presence, but at the same time she’s really feisty and gives the guys a run for their money. She is funny, witty and humorous too. She’s a really well rounded character and a good role model for girls.

What’s her lethal weapon?

Her lethal weapon is her wit. She doesn’t really fight unless she has to, so when she does have to fight (because she’s religious I suppose) she just hits people over the head with what’s nearby. When we were talking about the character they were like: is she a warrior? and I said no, she’s peace and love, she’s never had to fight in her life, she’s scared when she fights and she does it because she has to, not because she’s trained to. Her lethal weapon is her tongue.

Quantum of Solace, Clash of the Titans and now Prince of Persia, it seems Hollywood is knocking on your door? How does it feel?

Very strange and surreal when I see myself in those movies, especially this one I think. When I first saw this movie it took me a while to get my head around the fact that I was in it. I was a very normal girl and all of a sudden I’m there with Jake. It’s very strange for me and I always saw myself doing theatre and little jobs. I never thought I’d be in anything like this. Now that these films are coming I still find it very strange.

At the same time you’ve been in Tamara Drewe and Alice Creed so there’s these bg budget films but small stuff too. How do you decide what you’re going to do?

Well at first I didn’t really have the option of choosing because it’s hard to get work, especially as an actress, so if you get given a role you just do it. I was very grateful to get the work. Now I’m in the situation where I’m starting to be able to choose and I deliberately chose Alice Creed which is very opposite to Prince of Persia and with Tamara Drewe too. I think it’s important with those films that it’s the ones I’m more selective with. These films are what they are, they’re popcorns movies  and entertainment but creatively for me, I’m very interested in challenging that. I make sure I do theatre too and I’m very fortunate in that I can do both and it helps get the smaller films made.

How did you get involved in acting?

I always enjoyed performing. I was a bit of a show off in school but I never really knew about other side of acting, the challenging and emotional side of acting. I used to watch musicals and Hollywood movies I suppose and I never really knew about anything else until I was 16 and watched Dancer in the Dark because I was a massive fan of Björk. I watched it on my own in my bedroom at 2 in the morning and was absolutely destroyed afterwards, I couldn’t sleep that night. I thought wow, there is this other side to acting and she’s a singer, how did she do that, the director must have helped. So I got into, especially European films from then on and that really excited me and inspired me to become and actress. Those are the sort of film I go and see at the cinema. I’m not the sort of actress that would let something affect me like that film did with Björk but I do like to challenge myself. I did a film that’s just come out in the UK called Alice Creed which did that for me and I’m really proud of it.

Did you ever have a plan B if acting didn’t work?

I’m so rubbish! You know I’ve never put pressure on myself. I think it’s the way I was brought up and my mum always said do whatever makes you happy and acting really made me happy. I thought if it doesn’t work then it’s not the end of the world, there are millions of other things that I can do but as of yet, I’ve not been in that situation so I’ve never really thought about it. I mean I love music and art, I paint but I’ve never really thought about it.

In Clash of the Titans and Prince of Persia, we get to see the wild side of you, does that come from true life?

Yeah! I think the reason I got Prince of Persia, because I was quite feisty in the audition. I didn’t know what Prince of Persia was. It rang a bell but I was never into computer games (surprisingly!) when I was a little girl and so I went into the audition quite blasé. I didn’t think I was going to get the part anyway so I thought I’ll just be myself. Mike Newell said to me:

“Can you do a posh accent because she’s a Princess” to which I said:

“I trained at the Royal Academy of f*cking Dramatic Arts, I can do whatever you want me to do!!”

You know, really bombastic like that and he said:

“I want YOU to play this part!!”

From that day he wanted me to play that part but I had to convince the producers then which is a whole different ball game.

So you didn’t go up to Jerry Bruckheimer and say the same thing you said to Mike?

No! Although I have been cheeky in the past and some people don’t really listen to my cheekiness!  I went to drama school and you’re surrounded by actors all the time desperate to get work and they’re not themselves and I think actually people want to see personality and I tend to get these strong roles in male dominated films which may reflect a little bit of who I am!

You look so beautiful and it surprises me that you call yourself a freak in interviews?

Well I am a bit of a freak. I’m not perfect and I do talk about it! I think people think actresses are perfect and they’re not, they’re just people. I’m always very aware of the younger generation as ive done a lot of movies kids watch, and I get a lot of letters from kids saying ‘ I want to be like you’ and I want to say ‘you can’ because you don’t have to be perfect to be an actress. I was born with deformities, I’m really clumsy, I’m not what you see on the screen, there’s four hours in makeup, you’ve got to go to the gym, it’s not a given!

Did you draw inspiration from the computer game for your part in the film?

Well, luckily my part is very different from the computer game, she’s a lot more of a sex goddess in the game and this is a Disney movie so we decided not to go down that route! The idea is from the video game which is completely original so he took the idea from the video game and just elaborated it so it could be a film. We wouldn’t care about what happens to the characters; they would just be jumping off walls. There needed to be a story there needed to be emotional connection, good guys bad guys and a feisty princess in the middle.

You’re playing the video games fans fantasy girl!

Yeah, I find that really weird!

You’re the new Lara Croft!

I don’t know about that, I don’t know! Someone said to me the other day that you should play Wonder Woman. I said yeah, yeah, I’m happy with that, I don’t know about Lara Croft though, she’s far too hot!

What have the game fans been saying?

Well, when I got cast in this there was a future about me not being….. every time I get cast as a lead in a big Hollywood movie (which has been twice now actually!) there’s a been a ‘she’s not hot enough’ especially when I got the Bond Girl part.  ‘oh she couldn’t play a Bond girl because she’s not hot enough’ blah blah blah, boring, boring, boring!

How do you feel when you hear that?

Well, I have to say I agree with them so I’m like yeah, I don’t know why I’m here either! I remember when I got cast in this, in the first ever meeting I went to the casting directors’ house. She sat me down, I’d never met her before and no one knew who I was, the Bond film hadn’t come out yet. Just before I went into the meeting I was in her kitchen and she’d left the names and pictures of everybody that they were seeing for Jakes part and for my part and I’m looking through and I’m like ‘I’m never gonna get it!’.

Who were the other in the list?!

(Laughs a lot!) I can’t tell you, I can’t tell you! But you can imagine, you can imagine. I remember going through it and going: ‘look at her! She’s so hot, she even looks like she could be Persian! I cant play this, I’m just some plain English girl’ and I think that really helped me get the role because I just really didn’t believe I’d get it. I remember saying to Mike when I got it, ‘why didn’t you cast Natalie Portman or Freida Pinto or whoever in the role because they probably should play it’ and he went ‘well, you’re the right actress for the role’ and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, maybe they want the right actress and not just the look’ because it’s Hollywood, they can spent a lot of money on making you look like a different race, and making you look hot if you need to be.

Were you self conscious when you’re cast in the role?

Yeah, I was self conscious because I was the only girl in it. There was Jake looking amazing in it and then there’s me and I’m meant to be the female lead draw and I feel really awkward with that. I don’t feel like that at all. I don’t know, I mean with every job I do, you always have your own insecurities.  The next role I’m playing is a really fat geek. And I’m really happy about that.

Are you willing to gain a lot of weight?

Yeah, I’ve done it before. I’ve gained weight, lost weight. I think if it’s right for the role. As long as it’s not excessive, then I don’t mind doing it. I feel more comfortable with that because then I don’t hae the pressure of being really glamorous. You can have a spot or a bad hair day where as with this film every day was immaculate. You just have to get over it. I have to keep telling myself that I’m an actress, not a model and its more important that I can act than look good.

When you see yourself on screen as a Princess, what do you think of her? Can you break away from Gemma?

No, I just can’t do it. I remember at one point I said to them, don’t film this side because I’ve got a crumpled ear and they’re like ‘you haven’t got a crumpled ear’ and I’m like ‘I have!’. At one point there’s a shot in this film and my face covers the screen and that’s the side of my face and I’m like my ear is the size of that door on the screen. I’m sitting there screaming and my friends who came to see it with me says you’re being ridiculous.

I remember watching the film, I’ve only seen it once but it was so weird because everything about it is pure old-school Hollywood. It reminds me of Lawrence of Arabia meets Indiana Jones and then im in it! I just can’t get my head around it!

How does your family react?

They’re really cool actually. They’ve been broken in quite gently. The Bond film was a big deal for them being British but not they’re not so bothered. It’s great for me because when everyone’s fussing around you it’s not so helpful.

What’s it like working on a Bruckheimer movie?

Immense! I mean, I think it’s the apitamy of Hollywood film making. Even on the Bond film and Clash of the Titans, It was nothing in comparison to this in terms of scale. Even just the sets, I had this palace built for me in the film and it was immense. It was the size of the Bond stage which is huge at Pinewood Studios.

When we were in Morocco, we were taking on this tour before we started film of all the sets and one was a city with all the streets and you could walk round it in half an hour seeing things that would never get seen on camera but they’re just there incase they are. Hundreds of horses, hundreds of extras. It’s just immense and it’s quite intimidating sometimes because you think they’re spending all this money on this because it’s going to be my face and then that in the background! So I’ve gotta make it kind of look alright! It’s a different ball game working on a Bruckheimer movie.

Would you ever move and live in Hollywood?

I’ve only ever been to Hollywood once. I’ve got such a great life here in London and also lots of films come here, I’ve never had to work there. All the Hollywood movies I’ve done have been here. And Martin Scorsese is coming here this year and everyone seems to be coming here to make their movies, which is great for me!

I work very hard but I’m very lucky to have such a normal life and normal friends outside of it who don’t do what I do and that keeps me grounded. I’d find it too much to live there.

If they make a sequel, would you want to be in it?

Yes, in this movie she’s protecting herself. Maybe they’d become allies, she could open up a bit more. There’s a lot more to be found. If they did make another one it would be so different to this one. I’d love to do another but I think we’d have to see how this one does first

So you haven’t been asked to do another one?

Maybe!? (she answered this in a ‘yes they have’ kind of way!)

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Prince of Persia is released in the UK May 21st. You can see interviews with all the cast on HeyUGuys so stay tuned or check out all our Prince of Persia Coverage here.

Check out Upbeat’s interview with Gemma below:

Film Trailers by Filmtrailer.com

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be invited to interview all the main cast of the new Disney / Jerry Bruckheimer movie, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. We also got to interview Mike Newell, the Director and Jordan Mechner who invented the original computer game back in 1989 on the Apple 2 computer.

I’ve already put up the interview with the Prince of Persia creator, Jordan Mechner which you can see here and we still have interviews with Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, and Sir Ben Kingsley but today we get to hear from the director of the movie, Mike Newell.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is released in UK cinemas this Friday, 21st May and you can check out my review here.

How Hard is it to make a movie based on a computer game?

We went through a big evolution. When we started, one of the things I said to Jerry Bruckheimer was, ‘I’m not in the generation for video games, does it matter and if so, how much does it matter?’

At that stage, everyone was aware that we had to make a story that was a general audience, not a game audience that had real scope and epicness to it, character, action, romance, comedy and all of those things and then little by little we discovered that the gamers themselves are very vocal, they had websites and all sorts of stuff and asked, when are we going to make a decent movie out of a video game?

I took it seriously in that I knew I had to understand the game and I tried to play it, got three steps to some revolving knives and had to get my assistants to play it for me! I would watch and take notes on weaponry, clothes and that sort of thing. But there wasn’t enough plot to make the movie like this, there wasn’t enough fusion between the two.

A couple of weeks ago I showed some of the movie to a group of gamers in San Francisco to see what they thought but, we won’t know for sure until they start saying on they’re websites if we’ve succeeded or not.

Are you ready for the critics?

I’m never for the critics, they’re always punishing and you can never understand why then don’t think that it’s the best movie ever made and you’re bitterly hurt by any other response.

Do you feel that you have made the best game conversion to the movie possible?

No. And the reason I say no is because I didn’t conceive of it as anything I should do. I wasn’t making a video game, I was making a great big movie. I was making a Bruckheimer movie and there is now such a thing as a ‘Bruckheimer movie’, it’s a genre. What I then did was to put up roots into the game and I cherry picked bits out of the game. I picked some shapes of the weapons, costume, the moves. But I didn’t set out to make a movie of the game, I set out to make a movie of a very good script about an absolutely fascinating thing which is what happens to people when they discover that a fable is real. This thing starts out as a fable and then this thing turns out to be real it’s a terrific shock. The example I use for myself is it’s a story like Noah, except instead of rivers you’re drowned by sand. For exactly the same reason, you’ve committed some indescribable sin and the gods are not going to let you get away with it.

In 1995 there was the 4 Weddings and a Funeral Mike Newell, then 2005 Harry Potter and now Prince of Persia – How has this happened?

I remember my then agent and my then lawyer sitting around a pool in LA and pleading with me saying, ‘Just do Harry Potter, you can do the tiny little movies after’ and I said ‘oh OK!’

I loved doing HP cos I could make a kind of film of it that they hadn’t done before. Daniel Radcliffe asked me if I’d been watching films for this. I said yes, I said I’d been watching paranoid thrillers like North by Northwest and I could see a way of moving that movie and I knew I’d have a good time and could also make it funny. Then Jerry asks you to make a movie and it’s like someone coming along to make a space movie or a cowboy movie and with PoP I really liked the story, I loved the idea of turning real people into a fable, and you have to say yes. I’ll make small films again I very much hope.

Did you cast Jake and Gemma and if so, why?

Yes. I’ve known Jake since he was a small boy, since he was about 10, as I knew his mother and father, then I knew him slightly through Mona Lisa Smile and through his sister, Maggie. I thought Maggie was great and I was surprised there was acting in the family as his mum’s a writer and his father’s a director but there they were. I’d seen him and I thought that what I had to have was no a prince, I had to have a trickster, an anarchist, a rebel, someone that would down the social scale from the rest of the royal family – this kid’s no royal, he’s from the steet and I had to have someone who had an anarchic sense of humour.

With Gemma, I was looking for a very particular thing. I seriously thought of going into Bollywood for that character. They’re staggering looking girls and some of them can act too! (Laughs!), and I didn’t expect to find her in this country. I met Gemma and I adored her. I met her sister, her mother, her father and all that but she’s a terrific actress. And I sort of fell in love with bits of her.

Which bits?!

I love her neck!

Did you have to fight for Jake?

I wouldn’t say I had to fight for him but he wasn’t an obvious choice. I introduced him to Jerry and they talked to him several times as he’s a huge investment. An awful lot of money is riding on his head and then he was convinced.

How did you transition from films like Four Weddings with no computer graphics (CG), to Harry Potter to Prince of Persia which are extremely CG heavy?

It’s what happened to the game (the business of making movies) in my lifetime. When I started, it was at the time of the Vietnam War and I didn’t go anywhere near the war but the equipment I used in TV was completely radicalised around the war because they had to have a sound camera that you could literally hold in one hand or they couldn’t run with soldiers. They designed one and it was called an Atrar. They said it was silent but it actually had a kind of clicking noise. That revolutionised the whole business making movies were made for TV, as suddenly you could make movies for TV with equipment half the size.

I remember there was a movie I wanted to make and I had to have one huge scene that was the last victory celebration of the last world war. There was a scene in The Strand and I had to do it. I had to fill the scene and I couldn’t do it, it was a tiny little movie. Someone told me that there is a thing that they’re working on where you can double, tripped, quadruple a crowd and somehow it’s done electronically but they didn’t understand how it worked.

Then I got a job with George Lucas who made a series in the this country called ‘Young Indy’ about the man before he became Harrison Ford. And George was adorable, he said you can cut it, but I will then re-cut it and I will fly you to San Francisco and I’ll show you why I’ve re-cut it, what I’ve done and what I can do. Young Indy was a kind of  flying test-bed for all the stuff they do now. I remember he showed me a shot of a field gun and he said how many do you want, I said ’16′, he said ‘easy’, flicked a switch and there were 16 field guns. We directors were educated in the evolution of the technology right from when I started work with the 16mm sound cameras right the way through to now and it’s a constant evolution, things just don’t stand still.

Are you surprised at where you’ve come to and do you worry about the future?

I worry some times, and I think the other thing that happens is ‘the game’ of making movies which is always a game played with money, one of the things is that these techniques lend themselves to certain subjects and not to other subjects. You always get a comedy made because making people laugh sells tickets, but dramas are very much not a thing of the present. Because a man and woman getting wound up about their relationship in romantic settings is not as interesting as $200m spent on cavalry charges, magic knives and that kind of stuff. And so, the marketplace reacts, they believe badly to drama, well to comedy as it’s a constant, and so it’s changed the game a lot. Everyone moans at the amount of money it costs to make a movie, but it’s kind of expected.

Would you work on another computer game movie in the future?

Guys like me come for the script, the characters, the situation, it’s all of those things, it isn’t a simple ‘find me a video game and I’ll go to work at all’.

Has it changed you or just changed your craft? Is there a Mike Newell before 2005 & after?

I hope there is! I’ve found a film I really want to make now which is about a man murdered in a very dreadful fashion but in a very ordinary pig London. But it’s very shocking and very surprising and doesn’t require any of this technology and at the same time it ought to be something that will make people sit up and get the movie made but it’s very difficult to get that sort of subject made.

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Prince of Persia is released in the UK May 21st. You can see interviews with all the cast on HeyUGuys so stay tuned or check out all our Prince of Persia Coverage here.

A couple of weeks ago London held the world premiere of the new Disney / Jerry Bruckheimer movie, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. The movie stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Sir Ben Kingsley, Alfred Molina and is directed by Mike Newell. We got to interview all the stars and every day this week, we’ll be putting up the interviews. Earlier today, I put up the Jordan Mechner interview, the creator of of the Prince of Persia computer games. You can see the interview here.

Anyway, moving on, this evening sees the LA premiere of the movie which, much like the London premiere will be streamed live. I’ve embedded the stream below which you can watch at your leisure. The premiere is due to begin 6pm PST.

Prince of Persia is released in the UK May 21st. You can see interviews with all the cast on HeyUGuys so stay tuned or check out all our Prince of Persia Coverage here.

Live TV : Ustream

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be invited to interview all the main cast of the new Disney / Jerry Bruckheimer movie, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. We also got to interview Mike Newell, the Director and Jordan Mechner who invented the original computer game back in 1989 on the Apple 2 computer.

Over the next 5 days, we’ll be bringing you the interviews with Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, and Sir Ben Kingsley but to start us off, let’s find out where the game came from and how it was turned into a movie by it’s creator, Jordan Mechner.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is released in UK cinemas this Friday, 21st May and you can check out my review here.

Many games have converted badly to the big screen in the past. What made you think Prince of Persia would work on the big screen?

I’d be the first to say that not every video game should be a movie but I always thought Prince of Persia would make a good one, since it’s really a game that is inspired by movies. Especially those old fashioned, romantic adventure movies which I think we really set out to make the modern version. To me the final version that we’ve made is like the old swashbuckling movies of the 40s and is just the kind of movie that inspired me to create the original game.

Do you have creative input into the entire movie and is there anything you’d change in the finished movie now that you’ve seen it?

It’s been a long time since the Apple 2 when I had the task of creating everything from the design, the art, the animation, the sound effects to the best of my ability myself. All the of the recent games have been collaborative projects just like the movie. In fact that’s what most exciting to me in the movie, to see the creative process come to life and then to see the final product.

If I had a dagger of time, I would give myself a cameo! I think that was an oversight!

Going back to 1989 when you created the game, what gave you the inspiration?

I think I must have grown up with these ancient tales like A Tail of a Thousand Knights, reading storybooks and I’d always been intruiged by that world and it was until recently until writing the movie and making the game The Sands of Time that I read the Book of Kings.

Have you ever been to Persia?

No, I live in LA!

How did the process begin from game to movie?

I brought the game to Disney & Jerry as a pitch right after the game The Sands of Time was released and I cut together a trailer from bits of the game. I pitched the story which I proposed to write and I think the trailer that I made using clips from the game really helped and gave them a real vision for what the movie could be.

How do you go about writing a game compared to writing a movie?

I approach them both from very different directions. When writing a game, it’s all about the game experience and the game-play. When I created the game, I look at what is the player doing, what skills does he learn, what can a user do with the controller. The game and the movie are very different, but have many similarities. In the game, the Sands of Time are a cataclysm, a form of play that transforms everyone except for the hero and his love interest into monsters because in the game the only way to interact with other characters is to fight with them.

Movies are great for character interactions and when you have a the scope that a producer like Jerry Bruckheimer or a director like Mike Newell can bring, you have the possibility of creating a whole world with cities and towns and a broad canvas and so many different character interactions that would be more difficult to integrate into game play. So I set out to write a new story that was inspired by the Sands of Time but had these tweeks.

Were there tweeks that were in the game that we might see in the movie as nods for gameplayers?

The whole movie is full of little moments that if you played the games you can experience them on a second level but really we were making a movie for a wider audience, for people who hadn’t played games as well as the gamers who had played it.

The dagger of time for example is a button on the console controllers that can turn back time in the game and it was fun to bring that into the movie. In the scene when he’s running over the rooftops and infiltrating the palace, the parkour elements are the cinematic version of the action sequences in the game.

Hundreds of people involved in the production drew from the game in all aspects like the costumes, the weapons and much more. The whole production is infused with the game in many elements, not just the script.

Were you on set for the whole shoot and did you have the opportunity to make changes?

Not all the time but I did visit the set. By the time you get to the set and the sequence needs to be set, it’s past the point where the screenwriter can make changes.

Were you involved in the casting?

I wasn’t but I was thrilled when I heard Jake was going to be Dastan. He looks like the character in the game and more importantly he embodies a humanity that’s as important to the character as his physical warrior aspects.

Jerry Bruckheimer has said that in 10 years, you won’t be able to tell the difference between video games and movies. Do you agree?

Games are becoming more and more like movies, and are approaching the realism of movies using tools like photo-realism. That said, that is one artistic choice and much like animated films you can do an animation that that is ultra-realistic like Avatar but with an animation like Toy Story, that might not be the way you want to go and the same can be true of games. Not every movie will feature fantastic CGI, video game-like action sequences and not every game needs cinematic cuts scenes and dialogue.

Do you play your own games?

The Sands of Time is the last game that I really played all the way through inside and out. These days as much as I love games, I don’t have the time to play 10, 20 or 40 hours to play a game all the way through so for fun I gravitate to more casual games like Beatles Rock band which I’ve been playing recently!

When you did the pitch for Disney, was it important for you to be part of the production team to be protective of your characters and story?

The great thing about working with a producer like Jerry Bruckheimer and on a movie of this scale, it goes so far beyond what I could do on my own on a an Apple 2 with a character that’s 40 pixels high to actually having Jake in the best shape of his life with thousands of people doing parkour on the rooftops. I just love that aspect of seeing something go beyond and go so much bigger!

Where does the name Dastan come from?

Dastan means  ‘trickster’ in Persian.

Are you already writing a sequel?

I’m currently working on a couple of other movie projects but as far as Prince of Persia, we’ve just been focused on this one movie and hopefully people will like it.

Prince of Persia is released in the UK May 21st. You can see interviews with all the cast on HeyUGuys so stay tuned or check out all our Prince of Persia Coverage here.

Last week, I attended the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time press conference in a lovely hotel in London. All the stars were there including leading man, Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Sir Ben Kingsley, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Mike Newell and the creator of the Prince of Persia computer game franchise, Jordan Mechner.

The lovely people at Disney were kind enough to give me the press conference footage in full and I really wanted to share it with you. I’ve stopped putting up full press conferences as most the time, they’re pretty dull but not this one as Jake Gyllenhaal was on comedy form and had the audience laughing throughout. Since we were so amused, I thought you might be too.

I had to edit it slightly as Sir Ben gave away a spoiler from the movie so the footage is slightly edited in two places. You’ll also get to hear me ask a question. See if you can spot me! We’ll be bringing you interviews with all the cast next week along with my review of the film. You can also see the photos I took at the press conference here and every single piece of Prince of Persia HeyUGuys coverage here.

So, for your viewing pleasure, I give you the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time press conference.

Last night, HeyUGuys were one of the privileged members of the audience of a very special show. I call it a show as the new Westfield shopping centre in London played host to an extravaganza of multiple forms of talent. Not only were the cast of the new Disney Movie, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time there, they also had a parkour (free-running) team called 3Run who put on a spectacular show.Bear in mind that this was the first premire that was held at Westfield since Iron Man 2 was cancelled a couple of weeks ago due to the Ash Cloud.

The cast including Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arteron, Sir Ben Kinglsey and Reece Ritchie were all there and were accompanied by director Mike Newell, and my hero, Jerry Bruckheimer. You can see my interviews with some of the cast and Jerry in the previous post.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is released in cinemas 21st May and our review will be up in a few days time. In the meantime, check out the photos that I took from the evening. If you’re a Gemma Arterton or Jake Gyllenhaal fan I think you might like them!