We don't normally post about tabloid-style photographs of semi-clothed actors, but in this instance we're making an exception as it's also our first look at Jake Gyllenhaal as the Prince of Persia. One thing's for sure: Jake's been at the gym.

Ooh, better than I expected.

Could be worse I suppose. The hair doesn't look at all convincing though.

They'd better not screw this up, because the POP trilogy has a fantastic story. Giving the Prince an actual name is bad enough. At least Bruckheimer is involved, meaning that it might not be the best movie ever, but at least it's got a good chance of being popular, and we might FINALLY get a respectable video game adaptation series.

I mean, look what he did to a friggin Disneyland ride!

Oh, and I liked the fourth Harry Potter movie and this is the same director, so at least that's good.

Gay Cowboy... Prince of Persia... Not seeing it...

I feel the Prince should be skinnier, so he can fit through cracks.

I think giving him a name is a good idea, perhaps even essential. I've not played the game, but to my thinking, in the game you kind of 'are' the character of the Prince, so him not having a name allows you to fit yourself into his role better. In a film, however, giving the character a name will make it much easier for the audience to relate to the character, which is vital for the film to work.

Like I said though, I'm not familiar with the game, so i don't know if his lack of name figures into the story or concept in any way, or how it may impact the character in the game.

One nice thing about the Prince's general anonymity is that it makes him more of a legendary figure. He's nobody specific: he's just this heroic, archetypal figure that is there when he is needed.

The main worry is that Jake's look seems more in keeping with the Prince from the Warrior Within sequel than Sands of Time. Given that Warrior Within was utterly terrible, it's a bit worrying.

I wonder how athletic Jake is - the Prince's key ability is his amazing acrobatics. If Jake can't pull them off, or if it cuts to a stunt double or - even worse - a digital double every time he jumps about, it'll be lame.

Well as far as I remember there was only a shirtless prince in the first game. Though the design of the first game was far, far more appealing than the second one for a game, I'm not sure it would translate to film well without appearing a bit... childish. You'd have to make some sort of hybrid of the first and second styles, so as to be relatively gritty and realistic (without being emo) while also keeping the persian nights, dreamy kind of look (without feeling like live action Aladdin).

Regarding acrobatics... they've actually said out front that they weren't aiming to make a "video game movie", so I think they might leave a good deal of the platforming stuff out. I mean, walking on walls... how the heck do you have him do that in the movie without appearing stupid? They're probably aiming for more realism, so while he might (and better be) althletic, I think it'll stay within the bounds of a normal human gymnast, at most. He looks more like a tough guy than an acrobat in those pictures, anyway.

That's where video game adaptions usually loose interest in my opinion, if they can't stick to the game then there's no point making a film adaption. Also Pooky, didn't the Prince in the first game have a shirt on then as you progressed it ripped until he became shirtless?

But he sort of looks the part besides not looking Persian enough. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

What's that supposed to mean? Because he played a gay cowboy he can't play the prince of persia?

Maybe instead of giving him a name they can use a symbol.
*Wonders who'll get that*

-Matt

The Prince formerly known as Persian, perhaps?

hehe, precisely.

Not sure what to make of the PoP film - they've delayed showing it to allow extra time for the post production which starts in London end of the year.

Visually I'm not convinced that Jake really fits the role - The prince was initially quite weedy and fell into the role as a hero (if you want to call him that). Still - it'll be interesting to see how far along they take the story and if there's a single slow motion sections to a metal soundtrack as the Dahaka punches through something it'll be pretty close to PoP2.

-Matt
"I...STAND ALOONE....(inside)"

While the 2nd game was a less polished, buggy, generic version of the original, I still thought some of the design was quite good. A bunch of it was lame, but some of the environments (like the gardens) were really gorgeous, and would look mind-boggling if done right on film. Same thing for the 3rd one, which had some cool, more open design in some parts. So I think taking cues from all 3 games would actually be a much better idea than just the first one. It's all about finding the right balance, and making it feel like a single style, which it appears they've done right so far by merging the 3 princes into one.

Not at all. Just hard to make the connection. Brokeback Mountain was a big deal out here in California (especially san francisco) and that's the role that I usually relate the actor to. It was like when Johnny Depp came out with Willy Wonka. I had a difficult time seeing him as Willy Wonka, because I had just seen Secret Window. Of course, that was before I realized his superb acting ability..