Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Mike Newell
Produced by	Jerry Bruckheimer Jordan Mechner Chad Oman Eric McLeod Mike Stenson
Screenplay by	Boaz Yakin Doug Miro Carlo Bernard
Story by	Jordan Mechner
Based on	Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time  by Ubisoft Montreal
Starring	Jake Gyllenhaal Ben Kingsley Gemma Arterton Alfred Molina
Music by	Harry Gregson-Williams
Cinematography	John Seale
Editing by	Mick Audsley Michael Kahn Martin Walsh
Studio	Walt Disney Pictures Jerry Bruckheimer Films Moving Picture Company[1]
Distributed by	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures[1]
Release date(s)	May 9, 2010 (2010-05-09) (London premiere) May 28, 2010 (2010-05-28) (United States)
Running time	116 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$150–$200 million[2]
Box office	$335,154,643[3]

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a 2010 American fantasy adventure film written by Jordan Mechner, Boaz Yakin, Doug Miro, and Carlo Bernard; directed by Mike Newell; produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and released 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, the two other titles from the Sands of Time trilogy of the Prince of Persia video game franchise, are also incorporated. The film received mixed reviews from critics, but was a box-office success, becoming the highest-grossing film based on a video game.

Plot [edit]

The film begins with the young prince Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal), adopted son of King Sharaman, spearheading an attack on the city of Alamut, accused to illegally selling weapons to enemies of Persia. In the aftermath of the battle, the city's princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) is captured and Dastan takes a strange dagger as spoils. After the invasion, Dastan is framed for the murder of Sharaman by his adoptive uncle Nizam (Ben Kingsley) and forced to go on the run from the king's sons, Garsiv (Toby Kebbell) and Tus (Richard Coyle). After being attacked by an escaped Tamina, Dastan finds that the sands within the dagger's hilt allow him to rewind time by a minute and retain knowledge of what happened before. While going to Avrat for Sharaman's funeral, the two encounter a shady merchant called Sheik Amar (Alfred Molina), and Dastan encounters Nizam, who pretends to be sympathetic to Dastan's plight. At their meeting, Dastan realizes Nizam's guilt and escapes from an ambush with the princess. Nizam then sets a group of Hassassins on their tail.

As they are on the run, Tamina tells Dastan about the dagger's origins: the gods had decided to sweep mankind from the earth with a great sandstorm because of their sin. But a young girl pleaded with the gods and convinced them to withhold their wrath. The sands from the storms were stored in a great hollow crystal called the Sandglass, with the dagger, called the Dagger of Time, being the only thing that could break the crystal. The Sandglass was hidden beneath Alamut with Tamina's family, descended from the young girl who saved mankind, as its guardians. It is shown that Nizam orchestrated the siege of Alamut so he could hunt for the Sandglass and use the sands to change an event in his youth where he saved Sharaman from a lion, thereby ensuring Nizam would become king.

Seeing that the sands’ release would destroy the world, Tamina is willing to return the dagger to the place where it was given, giving her life in the process. They reach the dagger's resting place, after being captured by Sheik Amar, but are attacked by Hassassins and soldiers under the command of Garsiv. Dastan manages to convince Garsiv of his innocence, but the Hassassins take the dagger and kill Garsiv. Together with Sheik Amar, his guardian Susu and his retinue, Dastan and Tamina head back to Alamut. After retaking the dagger, at the cost of Susu's life, Dastan uses it on himself in front of Tus, showing him the power of the dagger and his own innocence. But Nizam arrives, kills Tus and takes the dagger, leaving Dastan to die. Tamina saves him and they go down into the catacombs of Alamut.

After confronting and defeating the Hassassin leader, Dastan and Tamina arrive in the chamber of the Sandglass as Nizam stabs it, starting the release of the sands. When they reach him, Nizam attacks them, and Tamina, who has grown to love the prince, sacrifices herself to give Dastan his chance. Dastan manages to remove the dagger from the Sandglass, preventing the apocalypse, then time is rewound to just after the siege of Alamut, undoing all the events he has lived through. Dastan manages to find his brothers and expose Nizam, who attacks Dastan in a rage and is soon killed by Tus.

As an apology for the ransacking of her city, Tus suggests that Dastan and Tamina are married as a goodwill pact. As they converse afterwords, Dastan hints at his knowledge of the dagger’s power and says he looks forward to their future together.

Cast [edit]

• Jake Gyllenhaal as Dastan
  • William Foster as young Dastan; the Norwich teenager auditioned for the role at Ealing Studios in West London and was cast for his expertise in parkour. He said: "94% of it was me and the rest was stunt men... who did some of the stuff that I just wasn't allowed to do. None of it was special effects."
• Gemma Arterton as Tamina
• Ben Kingsley as Nizam
• Alfred Molina as Sheik Amar
• Steve Toussaint as Seso
• Toby Kebbell as Garsiv
• Richard Coyle as Tus
• Ronald Pickup as King Sharaman
• Reece Ritchie as Bis
• Gísli Örn Garðarsson as Hassansin Leader

Production [edit]

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."^[4] Mechner previously considered producing an animated film based on the games, but could not resist Disney and Bruckheimer's offer.^[5] In February 2006, Disney hired screenwriter Jeffrey Nachmanoff to write a new script for Prince of Persia.^[6]

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.^[7] 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.^[8] Newell was fond of Bruckheimer's films,^[9] 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.^[10] 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.^[5]

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.^[11] 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.^[12] 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.^[13] Gyllenhaal claims he "over-prepared"^[14] for the role, gaining five or six pounds of muscle.^[14] 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."^[14] Gemma Arterton was announced to play the role of protagonist Tamina,^[13] and Arterton reported she practiced horse back riding in Madrid before filming.^[15] Ben Kingsley was to portray the film's antagonist, Nizam.^[16] Alfred Molina was to portray a character named Sheik Amar, who becomes a mentor to the prince.^[17] Toby Kebbell was to play Prince Garsiv, Dastan's brother and head of the Persian army.^[18] Richard Coyle was cast as the eldest brother Crown prince Tus and William Foster was cast as young Dastan based on his experience in parkour. The leading characters of the film all speak with recognisably English accents.

Filming [edit]

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.^[19] 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.^[13] Eight weeks were spent in Morocco before the first unit moved to Pinewood.^[14] 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.^[20]

Soundtrack [edit]

Alanis Morissette composed the theme song for the film, named "I Remain".^[21] The score was written by composer Harry Gregson-Williams.

Marketing [edit]

Mechner, Gyllenhaal, Bruckheimer, and Newell at a panel promoting the film at WonderCon 2010.

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.^[22] The week of Confessions of a Shopaholic’s release, Disney signed a merchandising deal with Lego for the film.^[23]

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.^{[citation needed]}

Release [edit]

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.^[24] 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 [edit]

The film received mixed reviews and holds a 35% rotten rating on aggregate review site Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of 5/10.^[25] 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."^[26] Another review aggregate, Metacritic, which calculates an average rating based on reviews from mainstream critics, gave a score of 50/100.^[27] 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."^[28] 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."^[29]

Box office [edit]

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.^[30] 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,^[31] becoming the leader of the worldwide box office with $91,695,259, while reaching the #1 spot in 41 of the 47 countries.^[32]

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.^[3]

Home media [edit]

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released a single-disc DVD, a single-disc Blu-ray Disc, and a 3-disc Blu-ray Disc combo-pack in the US on September 14, 2010.^[33][34] 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.^[35]

In the UK, it opened at number one on the DVD and Blu-ray Disc charts during its first week.^[36] In Germany, too, the DVD landed No. 1 on the country's DVD chart.^[37]

References [edit]

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (film)

• 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