In Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Jake Gyllenhal stars as Prince Dastan, a former orphan who caught the eye of the king with a heroic deed, and was adopted into the royal family. Alongside his adoptive brothers he learns to fight like a warrior, but he is a bit scrappier that the other two, and can’t resist a good street fight from time to time.

He can nimbly traverse the city’s rooftops and his fancy footwork allows him to escape many a predicament that would have felled a lesser man. Prince Dastan is definitely supposed to be a throwback swashbuckler like Indiana Jones, or Richard O’Connell from The Mummy. Jake Gyllenhal almost pulls it off, but in the end, this story felt like a wanna-be Indiana Jones movie. Unfortunately, it comes up a bit short in every way.

The story begins when the Persian King believes that a neighboring kingdom harbors weapons of mass destruction, so they must invade and occupy the city. This will be Dastan”s big chance to to lead the army and prove his worth.

And so they invade the neighboring kingdom of Alamut under false pretenses. In Alamut, they encounter a beautiful, stubborn princess named Tamina, who takes a an instant dislike to Daston, but later, when Daston is accused of a committing a horrible crime, Tamina (Gemma Arterton, of Clash of the Titans) leads him to safety.

Earlier this week, we brought you three exciting new clips from the upcoming Disney blockbuster Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. We got our first look at the drama between Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Nizam (Ben Kingsley), as well as some of the immense action that the film plans to deliver.

Today, we’re bringing you even more. The screenplay comes from Boaz Yakin who was set to originally write the Batman Year One project directed by Darren Aronofsky. That film later became Chris Nolan’s Batman Begins. Also, the team of Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard helped move the Prince script along. They also wrote the script for Disney’s upcoming The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

In the clips today, we get our first look at Alfred Molina in the film, sporting a spiffy tan. Also, we get a bit more action and roof-jumping from Gyllenhaal’s Dastan, and a cool “Sand Trap” scene showing off some of the CG effects of the film.

Check out those clips after the jump. Catch Disney’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time as early as midnight tonight across the U.S.

This week could mark the the continuation of an epic summer blockbuster season as Disney comes out of the box swinging with Prince of Persia. Robin Hood and MacGruber had pretty lame opening week’s, while Iron Man 2 and Shrek Forever After took home a nice chunk of change. Disney, along with Bruckheimer and most of Hollywood, believe they will continue that success with this Jake Gyllenhaal-starring vehicle.

In the film, Gyllenhaal plays Dastan, a character made famous by the classic side-scrolling video game Prince of Persia. The movie is set against an epic historical backdrop, with plenty of fantasy elements thrown in for good measure. Joining Gyllenhaal are Gemma Arterton (Clash of the Titans), Ben Kingsley, and Alfred Molina.

In the first three clips we’ve got for you (that’s right, there will be more), Dastan and Nizam (Kingsley) prepare for battle, we get some nighttime sneak attacks, and Dastan and Tamina (Arterton) have a lover’s quarrel.

Check out the clips after the jump, and catch Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time in theaters Friday, May 28th.

Disney made the most of their WonderCon time this weekend, treating fans and curious spectators alike with two exclusive clips from the Prince of Persia‘s fabled world of 1,001 Nights.

I gotta be honest with you, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Newell and Bruckheimer have already spoken at length at WonderCon about their sensitivity to bringing this adaptation to the big screen, and on paper, it doesn’t seem like an odd bet. Bruckheimer certainly struck gold with the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, and given what Newell was able to do with the much beloved world of Harry Potter, I wasn’t as skeptical of his helming as I was at the odds of something getting completely lost in translation.

That being said, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time looks like it’s going to be a fun ride. The debut clip was an attack on a heavily fortified city and clearly shows off Gyllenhaal’s much talked about stuntwork (thanks to his acrobatic and Parkour training). There’s lots of sneaking around, last minute ingenuity and, of course, swordfighting (the hallmarks of any swashbuckler adventure film), but everything doesn’t always go according to plan. Yes, this is an action flick, but this is also a Newell film.

During the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time press conference at WonderCon this weekend, it was evident that all major players delighted in each other’s company and thoroughly enjoyed bringing the swashbuckling action adventure to life (especially Jake Gyllenhaal, who appears to have developed a fondness for stuntwork). During the course of the interviews, Jerry Bruckheimer (Producer), Mike Newell (Director), Jordan Mechner (Writer / Creator, POP Franchise) and Jake Gyllenhaal (Prince Dastan) all talked about the challenges and joys of bringing the popular gaming franchise to the big screen, and whether or not Prince of Persia will become a franchise.

In preparation for his role as Prince Dastan, Gyllanhaal revealed that he stepped outside his “normal” process for getting into character. “I’ve never done research playing video games. I’ve never played video games as research before. Sometimes I’ve read books, or I’ve hung out with Marines, but you know, playing video games is great fun.” Gyllanhaal also related that he has been a fan of the game since it was first released in 1989, when sidescrolling play was a prominent feature.

“I played the original when I was a kid, and then I only started playing the game pretty intensely when we were doing research, particularly for stunts. I’d be in the middle of shooting and  I’d see a move and then I’d call the stunt guys and say ‘check out this move, can we try that?!’ I continue to play it to this day.”

Although the gaming franchise provided a jumping off point (literally) for the live-action flick, Newell was quick to point out that they weren’t interested in retelling and rehashing what has already been visualized in the game, or elsewhere in movie lore.

“What we wanted to do was based on a storyline, but we wanted to make it emotionally real,” Newell explains.  “We did a huge amount of work at the script stage and at the rehearsal stage to make it absolutely real. Even the fights have an emotional reality. The big pressure was to take it to an area where a game couldn’t go, while not destroying the game side of it. I believe that we went very carefully back to 6th Century Persia. We looked at the style, we looked at the behavior, how cities were made and so on, and I hope that we were faithful to it and didn’t come in and jump all over it without a certain sensitivity.”

Many people are speculating that Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer’s upcoming Prince of Persia will carry on the financial mantle of the team’s previous franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean. After we took a look at the very first trailer, we’re now inclined to agree with that theory.

The film could also be what finally puts Jake Gyllenhaal on the map as an action star, which may be the logical next step in his career. Alongside Jake, the film stars Ben Kingsley, Alfred Molina, and Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace), and comes from a script by Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard (The Uninvited).

Disney just released three new character posters, showing off Kingsley, Arterton, and Gyllenhaal looking stoic. Even Ben has a bit of a photoshop’d twinkle in his eye for some reason. Check them out after the jump, and be sure to “Defy The Future” with Prince Of Persia: The Sands of Time on May 28th.

We’ve been trying to cover the brand new Disney epic from the creators of the Pirates of The Carribbean trilogy, with the little promotional material that the studio has already released. That seems to have changed in the past few days, as the first trailer for the film has finally hit the ‘net.

The film, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Star Trek’s Gemma Aterton, is based on the classic action/adventure video game about a A rogue prince who reluctantly joins forces with a mysterious princess 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.

The film is directed by Mike Newell, director of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and also stars Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina. Check out the first full trailer, thanks to our friends at Trailer Addict, after the jump. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time hits theaters May 28th, 2010.

With both historical fantasies and video game adaptations hot properties to snatch up in Hollywood, how could a new film starring Jake Gyllenhaal as an “adventurous prince who teams up with a rival princess to stop an angry ruler from unleashing a sandstorm that could destroy the world” NOT be an amazing idea for a movie? Well, if this new picture tells us anything, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time may actually be a fun flick.

Entertainment Weekly had the pic up over the weekend (bigger size after the jump), which is the first of probably many to come. The film features only a few other names besides Gyllenhaal, which is surprising given the nature of the film, and the fact that it’s a Disney and Bruckheimer project. These include Ben Kingsley, Alfred Molina, and rising star Gemma Arterton (Strawberry Fields in Quantum of Solace).

UPDATE: The first poster for Prince of Persia has also been released online. Check it out after the jump!

Assassin’s Creed became a major player once Ubisoft put a huge marketing and development budget behind it to help create one of their AAA titles. It was no surprise that they would attempt to bring it to the big screen like they did with Prince of Persia and plan to with Splinter Cell. But while Prince of Persia and Splinter Cell have had and will have seasoned writers feature film writers at the helm, a virtual unknown to Hollywood is being given the reigns of Assassin’s Creed.

According to Heat Vision, Michael Lesslie will be taking on writing duties for the Assassin’s Creed film. British, there isn’t much else known about Lesslie aside from a few short films. While some may see it as a risky endeavor for Ubisoft to give a multimillion dollar franchise to a virtual unknown, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time proved that even with a more veteran writer the success of a movie based on a gaming franchise wasn’t a guarantee.

There is some good, some awesome, some sad and some well excepted news in this weeks box office results.

Coming in at number one for the weekend, 21 Jump Street makes a splash with $35 million, and it’s very good news. To see a successful TV adaptation that proves you can be R-rated, have a completely unexpected tone and still work is a wonderful trend starter for the industry.

Hollywood is a copy cat industry and if remakes and reboots have to happen, the only way you can maintain some artistic credibly is to bring something fresh to the table. Hopefully this success can grease the wheels with other creative folks and deliver something unexpected with these name brands. It will be interesting to see how the zany Dark Shadows is received in the wake of this win.

The well expected news comes in the form of our second place finisher, The Lorax. This Suess adaptation is performing well above initial expectations and is proving to have strong legs as it fell another soft 40ish percent to nearly $23 million. The Lorax will take a hit next week, but is well on it’s way to crossing the $200 million bar.