The Pitch: Aiming for a broader
audience than the teenage-boy crowd at your average videogame-turned-popcorn-muncher, Disney's film offers something for a
female audience in sensitive-guy star Jake Gyllenhaal, who has buffed up significantly for this role, and
director Mike Newell, better known for films like 'Four Weddings and a Funeral' than action fare. (Also in the cast: Oscar
winner Ben Kingsley.) Morocco provided desert locations for this magic-and-swordplay
spectacle, involving a sandstorm and set in the sixth century, from
veteran showman Jerry Bruckheimer ('Pirates of the Caribbean').
The Prospects: The 'Prince of Persia' videogame
series is a
massive franchise providing a built-in
audience, but this
spectacle will lack one thing: 3-D. Mr. Bruckheimer says that today, after the
enormous 3-D success of 'Avatar,' the filmmakers would have shot 'Persia' in the process.