There are hopes amongst fans that Prince of Persia: The Sands of TIme could usher in an era of video games adapted into Hollywood movies that don't make video game fans hang their head in shame. Does making that happen require a director that appreciates, understands and video games? Well, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time director Mike Newell didn't know the script was based on a game, but once he learned of the story's roots, he started investigating Prince of Persia's legacy.
Newell described how he became aware of the video game connection to ComingSoon.net:
"When I first went into it I was absolutely in ignorance of it being a video game. I then discovered within the first few weeks that it was a video game and said to him, "Look, what do you want? Do you want a video game? Because if you do, I think I'm the wrong guy for you. I don't play video games. I'm not video-literate. I can just about send an email." He said, "No, don't worry about it." I think the reason that he said that was that he knew that I would have other things to offer. There would be sort of character and story and emotional things that I would have to offer, and comedy and all of that. He didn't want to freak me by saying, "Actually, the video game audience is very important to me"... and of course, it is. There are a lot of them out there and we must be very careful to satisfy them, you know?
We don't want to insult them, and we do want to satisfy them. I got this kind of feeling, I'm not sure where from, that there was an opinion in that gaming world, that there had never been a proper movie of a game that had satisfied them and they hoped that I wasn't going to screw this one up. And so, at that point, I started to play the game. Well, I got the game played for me; I'm really bad at the game - he kept falling off the wall into the knives. I got my assistants to play the game and then we sort of got an idea of what the story was, how the game looked and we kind of cherry-picked it.
Plus there was the great Jordie Mechner and Jordie and I got on like a house on fire and he's a research freak. He's actually read these ancient Persian texts and things like that. You can go to him and you can say, "What do you think about this Jordie?" or "What were the swords like?" or "Was the water really pure?" He'll be able to tell you all of this fine, fine detail which gives it a great realism."
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time opens in theaters nationwide on Memorial Day weekend.
Source: ComingSoon.net
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miva2
the movie wasn't the best ever but it certainly wasn't a bad movie. I'm happy they chose for an alternative storyline and kept the key elements of the tsot game.it's funny to suddenly hear the prince's name, but with a different storyline, and i suppose different main character, a name sounds fine. would be weird to watch an entire movie without knowing the main character's name.
i recommend it.
einahpets
Wow... that... just... wow.
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typhoon_2099
What was wrong with Lara Croft: Tomb Raider?
Muggy
Considering the history of Video Game Movies it's natural to be skeptic about this. Still, with a big budget and direction Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer (Previously working on Pirates Of The Caribbean together) has to offer every gamer who is not only familiar with the PoP series but the whole community itself is secretly hoping that this will work beautifully. So far, from what I've seen the movie looks rather good from the trailers. Then again, Trailers only show the best parts of any movie.
I'm happy that Newell has the video gaming community in mind but in the end it's all about money and how the producers/studio want it to turn out. With the gaming community coming into play there's a lot to be made but keep in mind that Hollywood will always dominate the movie scene over anything else and that they will never fully appeal to "Gamers" with these kinds of movies by changing many plot items including key bits.
In my opinion I hope this movie is a huge success not only in ticket sales but with finally giving gamers hope that there is such a thing as a "Good" video game movie. My only concern is that, if they decide to turn this into a trilogy and with Disney involved they'll take out the "Dark" and "Mature" aspect that "Warrior Within." and "The Two Thrones" right out and make it friendly to families which I suspect, if it goes into a trilogy, that they will do so. Then again, I'm probably the only one who thinks that.
So, to properly sum up the feelings of anyone here, it's a big "We'll see what happens." type of scenario. But hey, here's hoping! As for me, I still plan on seeing the movie in theaters regardless of what people may say or see.
Halogun
im a huge pop fan and i have to say the film looks very promising from the trailers it looks like they whent in a cool direction with the whole rewinding time thing and the acrobatics look great.
HaloGhostS7
I'm not going to lie, I never played any of the Prince of Persia games.
I will however go see this in the hopes that it is the first of many GOOD video game movies.
JDarkley
Finally! A director who knows how to make a good movie and not quick dollar! That's all I wanted out of this.
Bass.EXE
I really hope that this not only is a good movie but that this also attracts lots of viewers. It could be a great movie, but if nobody goes to see it, we may never get a good video game movie again (that last word being dependent on the quality of this movie).
I, for one, am going to see this opening day because PoP was and still is one of my favorite series.
bunnyglomp
From what ive seen in the trailers, he's already done better than Uwe Boll, and thats a majority of videogames movies beat right there! i would say good job, but thats like saying good job for breathing.
Displaying 1–10 of 10
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