Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (film)

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a 2010 sword-and-sorcery action film written by Jordan Mechner, Boaz Yakin, Doug Miro, and Carlo Bernard; directed by Mike Newell; produced by Jerry Bruckheimer; and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The film is a retelling of the 2003 video game of the same name, developed and released by Ubisoft Montreal.

The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Prince Dastan, Gemma Arterton as Princess Tamina, Ben Kingsley as Nizam, and Alfred Molina as Sheik Amar.

The film has the same title as the video game Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and is primarily based on it. Elements from Prince of Persia: Warrior Within and Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, two other titles from the Prince of Persia video game franchise, are also incorporated.

Plot

An attack at the sacred city of Alamut is planned by Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal), an orphan in the Persian Empire adopted by King Sharaman (Ronald Pickup), his royal-blooded adoptive brothers, Tus (Richard Coyle) and Garsiv (Toby Kebbell), and his uncle, Nizam (Ben Kingsley), after Alamut is believed to be selling weapons to Persia's enemies. Dastan leads a surprise attack to open the city's gates to allow the army in; during the ensuing battle, Dastan comes into possession of a unique dagger. Alamut's princess, Tamina (Gemma Arterton), is arrested and agrees to marry Tus in order to achieve peace after noticing Dastan's dagger.

Dastan unknowingly presents a poisoned robe, given to him by Tus, to his father, who dies upon donning it. After being blamed for the murder, Dastan flees Alamut with Tamina. When Tamina attempts to kill the prince, Dastan discovers the dagger can reverse time and only the one who activated and holds it is aware of what happened. After an encounter with shady ostrich racing-organizer Sheik Amar (Alfred Molina) and his knife-throwing African friend Seso (Steve Toussaint), Dastan and Tamina head to Avrat for Sharaman's funeral. Dastan attempts to convince Nizam that he did not kill his father, and notices Nizam's hands are burned by the same poison put on the robe that killed his father. Garsiv and the city guards appear and attack Dastan and he is forced to escape.

Dastan catches up with Tamina and explains that Nizam was behind the murder. Once Tamina finally explains everything about the Dagger, Dastan realizes why Nizam wants the Dagger of Time: to use it with the massive Sandglass to go back in time and undo saving Sharaman from a lion so he could become king. He fabricated the false allegations that Alamut had been dealing weapons to Persia's enemies so that he would have the opportunity to search the city for the Sandglass. However, Tamina warns that opening the Sandglass would release the sands, triggering an apocalyptic sandstorm that would destroy the entire world. Meanwhile, Nizam hires the lethal Hassansins to slay Dastan.

Dastan and Tamina are again captured by Sheik Amar, seeking to rebuild his ruined business by turning them in for bounty. But that night, the Hassansin leader, Zolm (Gísli Örn Garðarsson) attacks the group with vipers, which are killed by Dastan through usage of the dagger. Amar decides to go along with Dastan and Tamina to a secret sanctuary near India. However, they run into Garsiv's men. Dastan manages to persuade his brother that he is innocent, only for Garsiv to be fatally wounded by a Hassansin. The Hassansins attack, while Dastan and Tamina sneak away to the secret cave where they can hide the Dagger. After Dastan prevents Tamina from giving up her life to protect the Dagger, they are found and Zolm manages to snatch the Dagger of Time from Tamina. However, the last Hassansin attacks Dastan, but Garsiv saves Dastan but is killed while doing so.

The group returns to Alamut to reveal the truth about Nizam and the Dagger to Tus. Seso manages to take back the Dagger after a battle with Setam, the Hassansin who killed Garsiv, that ends up killing both men. Dastan confronts Tus and explains the dagger's mechanics to him and then stabs the dagger into his heart, killing himself; Tus brings Dastan back to life by rewinding time and realizes his brother has been innocent all along. Soon after, however, Nizam appears, kills Tus, and takes the Dagger, leaving a Hassansin, Ghazab, to kill Dastan. Tamina arrives to help Dastan defeat Ghazab as Nizam goes to the Sandglass caves beneath Alamut. Dastan and Tamina go behind, and on the way Tamina kills Zolm with the Hassansin's own snake, while preventing him from killing Dastan; the pair share a kiss in the fight's aftermath. They then reach Nizam before he can pierce the Sandglass with the Dagger, but he knocks Tamina and Dastan over the edge. Dastan grabs hold of Tamina, but after admitting she loves him and asking Dastan to stop Nizam, (saying it's been his destiny all along), Tamina lets go, killing her, leaving Dastan devastated. Dastan then pulls himself up just as Nizam stabs the Sandglass with the Dagger. Dastan grabs hold and opens the Dagger, rather than activating it. This causes Dastan to go back to when he first obtained the Dagger.

Dastan stops the siege of Alamut, revealing Nizam's treachery; Nizam is angered and attempts to kill Dastan, but is stabbed in the chest by Tus's blade and dies seconds later. After apologizing for the ransacking of her city, Tus suggests that perhaps Tamina should become Dastan's wife as a sign of good will since he was the "conqueror and savior of her city" as Tus described him. Prince Dastan returns the Dagger of Time to Tamina, which changes her view of him. Later on, the two take a walk together, and Dastan and Tamina have a small conversation, in which Dastan hints at his knowledge of the Dagger's powers and tells Tamina that he looks forward to a future with her.

Production

In March 2004, the production company Jerry Bruckheimer Films sought to acquire feature film rights to the 2003 video game Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time with the film to be distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. Under John August as executive producer, the series' creator Jordan Mechner was hired to write the script. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer's Pirates of the Caribbean film trilogy served as a touchstone in how a theme park ride was converted into a film franchise. According to Mechner, "Rather than do a straight beat-for-beat adaptation of the new videogame, we're taking some cool elements from the game and using them to craft a new story."^[3] Mechner previously considered producing an animated film based on the games, but could not resist Disney and Bruckheimer's offer.^[4] In February 2006, Disney hired screenwriter Jeffrey Nachmanoff to write a new script for Prince of Persia.^[5]

Early in 2007, Disney announced Rahul the Prince as one of its tentpole films and by June had scheduled a release date for July 10, 2009, before having a final script or any actors attached.^[6] By November 2007, Disney entered negotiations with Mike Newell to direct the film based on a script by Mechner and Nachmanoff, though the studio held off production until the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike was resolved.^[7] Newell was fond of Bruckheimer's films,^[8] and loved the "exciting and immensely romantic" script, which reminded him of Lost Horizon. His assistant played the video games and gave the director key details.^[9] Mechner, in writing the script, re-conceived the storyline to shift the perspective from the interactive one experienced by video gamers to the non-interactive experience by film audiences. The screenwriter left out elements of the Prince of Persia video games Warrior Within and The Two Thrones and did not anticipate including these elements in the film's possible sequels.^[4]

When filming began, the film's release date was postponed to May 28, 2010, with the studio seeking enough time for the post-production process in designing the film's special effects. The profit margin on the Pirates of the Caribbean films was compromised by overspending as special effects teams rushed to complete the films for their release dates.^[10] Variety also ascribed the postponement to avoiding the potential 2008 Screen Actors Guild strike so the studio could ensure that the film leads to a "mega-franchise" similar to its successful Pirates of the Caribbean series.^[11] Other reasons for the release date change were that the film was originally scheduled a week before Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and Disney needed more time to co-ordinate its marketing campaign.^[12] Gyllenhaal claims he "over-prepared"^[13] for the role, gaining five or six pounds of muscle.^[13] The actor says, "I never knew how much they were going to ask me to do, so I just made sure I'd be hopefully able to do anything."^[13] Gemma Arterton was announced to play the role of protagonist Tamina,^[12] and Arterton reported she practiced horse back riding in Madrid before filming.^[14] Sir Ben Kingsley was to portray the film's antagonist, Nizam.^[15] Alfred Molina was to portray a character named Sheik Amar, who becomes a mentor to the prince.^[16] Toby Kebbell was to play Prince Garsiv, Dastan's brother and head of the Persian army ^[17] and Richard Coyle was cast as the eldest brother Crown prince Tus. The leading characters of the film all speak with recognisably English accents.

Filming

In March 2008, director Mike Newell selected Morocco as a shooting location for Prince of Persia and also planned to film in Pinewood Studios. Production was scheduled to begin in mid-June 2008.^[18] By May 2008, actors Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton were cast into the lead roles. With a new script by Jordan Mechner, Doug Miro, Carlo Bernard, and Boaz Yakin, filming began in July 2008 in Morocco as well as London.^[12] Eight weeks were spent in Morocco before the first unit moved to Pinewood.^[13] Unlike other Disney films being made at the time, filming was not done in three dimensions, nor was the film converted into 3-D during post production.^[19]

Soundtrack

Alanis Morissette composed the theme song for the film, named "I Remain".^[20] The score was written by composer Harry Gregson-Williams.

Marketing

The poster made its debut as a background prop in a 2009 Bruckheimer production, Confessions of a Shopaholic, similar to how Warner Bros. incorporated poster for various developed but never filmed projects based on their comic characters in I Am Legend.^[21] The week of Confessions of a Shopaholic’s release, Disney signed a merchandising deal with Lego for the film.^[22]

Disney released merchandise such as action figures, sets, costumes and a replica Dagger of Time. It also released a graphic novel called Prince of Persia: Before the Sandstorm, which will act as a prequel to the film. Also, a video game was developed by Ubisoft Montreal titled Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands and was released alongside the film; however, the game's story is unrelated to the film, and instead serves as an interquel to the first two games in the Sands of Time trilogy.

Release

Disney's marketing strategy included a step by step release of the film. Prince of Persia was released first in Europe, with its world premiere held in Westfield, London, UK on May 9 then premiered on May 19, 2010 in Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland, and on May 20 in Germany.^[23] It was released on May 21 in the United Kingdom, Spain, Bulgaria, Poland, and Turkey. It was released in Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and the Philippines on May 27. The film was not released in the United States until May 28 to try to profit from the potentially higher audience on Memorial Day weekend. It was also released in Ghana, India, Romania and Nigeria on May 28.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 36% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 209 reviews, with an average score of 5/10.^[24] The critical consensus is: It doesn't offer much in the way of substance, but Prince of Persia is a suitably entertaining swashbuckler—and a substantial improvement over most video game adaptations.^[25] Another review aggregate, Metacritic, which calculates an average rating based on reviews from mainstream critics, gave a score of 50/100.^[26] Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four and wrote, "The two leads are not inspired. Jake Gyllenhaal could make the cover of a muscle mag, but he plays Dastan as if harboring Spider-Man's doubts and insecurities." ^[27] Film critic David Roark of Relevant Magazine, on the other hand, gave the film a positive review and wrote: "Newell has unquestionably accomplished what he set out to do, which is ridiculous, silly and forgettable, but amusing nonetheless."^[28]

Box office

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which, according to Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer, was supposed to be "the new Pirates of the Caribbean", debuted #3 at the U.S. box office behind Shrek Forever After and Sex and the City 2 with $30.1 million in its first 3-day weekend of release. It is the third highest opening for a video game adaptation, behind Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Pokémon: The First Movie. During Memorial Day, it surpassed Sex and the City 2 to gross $37,813,075 for the 4-day weekend and finish in second place.

Internationally, the film grossed an estimated $18 million in its first weekend (before its US release), when it opened in 19 major European countries.^[29] Prince of Persia debuted at #1 in these countries, except UK where it lost the top spot to StreetDance 3D. A week later the film was released in the rest of the world and it grossed an estimated $61.6 million in total from 47 countries and $30.1 million in North America,^[30] becoming the leader of the worldwide box office with $91,695,259, while reaching the #1 spot in 41 of the 47 countries.^[31]

The film has ultimately earned $90,759,676 in the United States and Canada and $244,394,967 in other countries, for a total worldwide gross of $335,154,643 and has become the highest-grossing video-game adaptation ever worldwide, overtaking previous record holder Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Mortal Kombat.^[2]

Home media

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released a single-disc DVD, a single-disc Blu-ray, and a 3-disc Blu-ray combo-pack in the US on September 14, 2010.^[32][33] The DVD landed in the number one spot on the US DVD sales chart, with 664,041 units sold within the first week and 1,623,361 units in total (equal to $33,941,976) as of March 13, 2011.^[34]

In the UK, it opened at number one on the DVD and Blu-ray charts during its first week.^[35] In Germany too, the DVD landed No. 1 on the country's DVD chart.^[36]

Sequel

Gemma Arterton expressed her interest in returning for Prince of Persia sequel if it happens by saying: "Yeah, I would love to, actually. We made it two years ago and I feel refreshed. So if they wanted to do another one, which I'm sure as it is hinted at (towards the end of the film) that there are many different avenues that it can go down".^[37] Jake Gyllenhaal said that if the movie does well there would be a potential sequel."I think everybody's just hoping that the audience is going to like this movie and if they respond to it I think we would be more than happy to try our hand at another one. I think at this point we're all just hoping people will like this and go and see this one".^[38] Until now no official announcement has been made if a sequel will be made.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• Official website
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time at the Internet Movie Database
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time at AllRovi
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time at Box Office Mojo
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time at Rotten Tomatoes
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time at Metacritic