Prince of Persia

PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME Blu-ray Review

by Andre Dellamorte    Posted: September 14th, 2010 at 6:11 am

Every summer studios produce weekends full of “A” titles, summer blockbusters that are meant to wow us and make piles upon piles of money. These are the prestige titles of the day, and though they may be stupid, no expense is sparred in the making of them. Of course this doesn’t mean the people behind or in front of the camera are the best in the business, but they have the potential to deliver an audience by their star appeal, and their knowledge of what works. Hopefully.

On Paper, Disney’s Prince of Persia sounds like it could be something. It’s produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, it stars Jake Gyllenhaal – who hasn’t set the box office on fire, but is a respected actor – with Bond Girl turned it girl Gemma Arterton. The director is Mike Newell who directed one of the best of the Harry Potter franchise, and the film is based on a successful video game, one that serves only as a basis for an action adventure story. But all those details add up to one terrible movie, and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a pretty terrible film. My review of Prince of Persia on Blu-ray after the jump.

Toby Kebbell Video Interview THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE; Plus Updates on THE VETERAN and Redford’s THE CONSPIRATOR

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: July 11th, 2010 at 8:28 pm

While many of you might not recognize Toby Kebbell’s name, you’ve probably seen his work.  That’s because in Guy Ritchie’s RocknRolla, Kebbell was amazing as Johnny Quid.  Also, Kebbell was great in Anton Corbijn’s Control as he played Rob Gretton and he was in Disney’s Prince of Persia as he played Garsiv.

At any rate, I was able to recently interview Kebbell as he’s in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (which opens this Wednesday) and during the interview we talked about being in two big summer movies, how does he prepare for his roles, he tells me some great stories about how he got ready for RocknRolla, plus he discussed The Veteran and Robert Redford’s The Conspirator, as he plays John Wilkes Booth.  Hit the jump to check it out:

Screenwriters Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard Video Interview THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: July 11th, 2010 at 5:56 pm

You might remember back in May I posted two video interviews with screenwriters Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard. The first interview covered their work on National Treasure 3 and Tintin and the second interview covered Prince of Persia: The Sand of Time.  At the time, I also talked with them about writing The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, but I decided to wait till closer to release to post it.  With the movie set to get released this Wednesday, I thought tonight was a perfect time to post it.

During the interview, they talked about starting work on the project as soon as Prince of Persia wrapped, how they had a lot of pressure to get it done quickly as sets were being built, what it was like to work with Nicolas Cage, did they watch Fantasia before writing, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to check it out:

Friday Box Office – New Releases Can Not Overcome SHREK FOREVER AFTER

by Nicole Pedersen    Posted: June 5th, 2010 at 9:52 am

After last weekend wrapped up one of the lowest-grossing Mays of the past decade, the 2010 summer box office season limped its way into June yesterday with four decidedly uninspiring debuts. Making the biggest impact was Get Him to the Greek from the Apatow clan. The R-rated comedy launched to an estimated $6.1 million from 2,696 locations, second only to the third week of Shrek Forever After…  Yes, it is exactly that bad. The Katherine Heigl/Ashton Kutcher spy-comedy Killers was third, earning $5.7 million and edging out the sophomore sessions of Sex & the City 2 and Prince of Persia. Meanwhile, the estimated $3.4 million earned by Fox’s Marmaduke was only good enough for sixth place while the creature effects of Splice took number seven with an estimated $2.6 million. Full details on an epically lackluster weekend when you check back here tomorrow.

	Title	Friday	Total
1	Shrek 4	$6,761,000	$164.5
2	Get Him to the Greek	$6,137,000	$6.1
3	Killers	$5,700,000	$5.7
4	Sex & the City 2	$4,435,000	$65.2
5	Prince of Persia	$4,130,000	$49.7

PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME Featurette: Creating an Epic

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: February 19th, 2010 at 10:03 am

Walt Disney has released a Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time featurette called Creating an Epic.  As you might imagine with that title, the featurette shows what the production and actors went through to bring the movie to life.  What’s great about the video is not only does it show behind the scenes footage from Morocco and the massive sets that were built, it’s got new footage from the movie.

While many have tried and failed to make a great movie based on a video game, I think this is going to be the first one that works.  Hit the jump to check out the video:

Gemma Arterton On Set Interview CLASH OF THE TITANS

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: February 17th, 2010 at 10:18 pm

If you don’t know who Gemma Arterton is…I’m confident that’ll change by June.  As the female lead in both Clash of the Titans and Prince of Persia, Gemma Arterton is right on the cusp of being a huge movie star.  But when I was on the set of director Louis Leterrier’s Clash of the Titans last August outside of London, Gemma Arterton came across as not only grounded, but completely unaffected by the high profile movies she was in. While some actors might let it go to their head, Gemma didn’t seem like she’d be one of them.

Anyway, during the roundtable interview with Arterton, she talked about her character Io in the film, how she had been finding her way as filming went on, filming such huge movies and what that’s like, and a ton more as we spoke to her for around 30 minutes.  Hit the jump to read or listen to what she had to say:

SUPER BOWL XLIV Ads Revealed – Universal, Paramount and Walt Disney Buy Spots

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: January 5th, 2010 at 9:24 pm

With Super Bowl XLIV airing in a month (February 7, 2010), the list of advertisers who have bought spots has been revealed.  While the country is still in a recession and some may think paying almost $3 million for 30 seconds of airtime is crazy, the fact is…you’re going to get around 100 million people watching your commercial, and that’s an enormous amount of eyeballs.

So to try and raise awareness for this year’s biggest movies, Universal, Paramount and Walt Disney have all bought TV spots.  Universal and Disney have purchased one spot, while Paramount bought three.  Universal will probably show Robin Hood or Wolfman, Walt Disney might go with Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story 3 or Prince of Persia, but you don’t have to wonder about Paramount, as they’ll be showing Shutter Island, Iron Man 2 and The Last Airbender during the first and second quarters.  For fans of all these films, let’s hope some of these spots have new footage. (via adage.com)

Exclusive PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 4 Update from Producer Jerry Bruckheimer

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: November 4th, 2009 at 4:02 am

Last week I went to Producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s office in Santa Monica to get an early look at the “Prince of Persia” trailer.  Perhaps you read what I wrote.  Anyway, after the presentation ended, I walked outside the screening room and Bruckheimer along with “Prince of Persia” creator Jordan Mechner were standing nearby talking. While not wanting to interrupt their conversation, when you have an opportunity to ask one of the biggest producers in Hollywood a question or two, you sometimes have to get aggressive. I walked over to say how much I liked the trailer and how I thought this might finally be the video game based movie that kicks ass.

But once the “Prince of Persia” talk ended, I decided to ask Mr. Bruckheimer what’s up with “Pirates of the Caribbean 4″. As you might have heard, a management shakeup recently happened at Disney and rumors have been flying that Johnny Depp might not do the film with former Chairman Dick Cook out of the picture. Since no one has been able to confirm or deny the rumor, with my limited time I decided to ask Mr. Bruckheimer three questions: I asked what’s up with the script, when are they going to shoot the film, and did the regime change cause any problems. He told me they’ve gotten the script, the management change will not affect the production, and he believes they’ll be filming next year. Of course things change along the way, but the way he spoke to me about the project, I believe the Black Pearl is going to be looking for the Fountain of Youth quite soon.

PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Game Creator Jordan Mechner Interview

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: November 4th, 2009 at 4:01 am

Last week I went to producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s office in Santa Monica to get an early look at the “Prince of Persia” trailer along with a number of other online journalists. As I said last week, I think “Prince of Persia” is finally going to break the movies based on a video game curse.  Up to now, every video game based movie has been treated by Hollywood as a joke. They never have a budget. The scripts have been terrible. Also, after you see the movie, you lose respect for the game it’s based on. But after watching the trailer and speaking with Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and “Prince of Persia” creator Jordan Mechner, I think they’ve done everything they could to try and make this movie work.

Anyway, after we all watched the trailer, Bruckheimer and Mechner answered questions for about twenty minutes. While they discussed all the usual behind the scenes stuff, there was a lot of new info revealed.  Here’s some of the highlights, but you can read the full transcript after the jump:

• They recently test screened the movie and it was 147 minutes (2hr. 27 minutes) but they’ve shortened it since then. Bruckheimer said “the movie took a little long in getting started, so we made a trim at the beginning of the film that really helps it.”
• Bruckheimer says “Prince of Persia” is like a throwback to Lawrence of Arabia with supernatural
• They’ve been working on the special effects for over a year and a half.  Bruckheimer talks about how they took a long time developing the story to try and break the video game curse.
• Some other “Prince of Persia” games are coming but Mechner wouldn’t tell us any specifics except  we’ll hear about them in the next few months
• I tried to find out if they set up anything for sequels in the movie.  Bruckheimer and Mechner said they didn’t.
• They changed the names of some of the characters from the game as a signal to gamers to not expect it to be a literal retelling of the story of the game
• If you’ve played the game, you’re going to notice some gameplay on the screen

As I said, after the jump you can read the full conversation. If you’re a fan of the video games or you just want learn what went on behind the scenes to bring “The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” to life, you’ll really dig this interview. Take a look:

Disney’s D23 Expo Features Sneak Peeks at ALICE IN WONDERLAND, TOY STORY 3, PRINCE OF PERSIA, THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE and MORE!

by Ramses Flores    Posted: August 19th, 2009 at 5:54 pm

Disney has now announced what we will be seeing at the D23 expo this year. The event will take place from September 10-13 in Anaheim, California and it has a pretty fun and exciting line up. Over the 4 days Disney will be showing exclusive sneak peeks of “A Christmas Carol”, Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland”, “Prince of Persia”, “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, “Tron: Legacy”, and “Toy Story 3″. Selected scenes from “Beauty and the Beast” in 3D and the 3D double feature of “Toy Story 1 & 2″ will be shown along with some newly restored prints of classic Disney films such as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and “Sleeping Beauty”. To find out what else will take place at D23 and how you can attend. check out the full press release after the jump.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer Backstage Interview – 2009 Saturn Awards

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: June 28th, 2009 at 8:50 pm

As the producer of over seventy movies and TV shows, you’ve all seen something made by producer Jerry Bruckheimer. But if you don’t recognize the name, maybe you’ve seen “Pirates of the Caribbean”, “Bad Boys”, “Beverly Hills Cop”, “C.S.I.” or “Cold Case”. To put it simply, Jerry’s a big deal.

So when I got the chance to briefly interview him backstage at the 2009 Saturn Awards, I wasn’t sure what to ask. After all, you could spend the entire interview asking questions about previous projects. But since he has a project about to come out and some stuff in post production, I decided to talk about upcoming things.

After the jump Jerry talks about “G-Force”, “Prince of Persia” and “Sorcerer’s Apprentice”. Take a look:

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