PoP to be an 'emotional journey' - with Jake, an inspirer of sighs

All those of us who have struggled gamely through (some of) the levels of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time have always called the Prince the Prince. And this has been wise, because it is best not to become too attached to a Prince that, at regular points along his perilous journey, you have caused to be impaled, stabbed and splattered. He's always polite each time you kill him, inviting you to put him through his paces yet again, maybe this time avoiding the drop to certain doom, but nevertheless, best not to name him.


But Disney, now that it has removed our control over the Prince's fighting reflexes and springy feet, thinks its Prince of Persia stands more of a fighting chance against monsters, vertical drops, collapsing palaces, snakes and scorpions, evil uncles and frisky heroines. So they've given him a name and now we know that the chosen name - Dastan - means Trickster. And having seen the dangers the Prince faced in the Sands of Time game (and having needed more than one printout of handy hints to get me through), it's going to take more than the Prince's trademark tricks with time to get him to the end.


The reason behind the choice of name was just the one of the things revealed about the project by its screenwriter and producer, Jordan Mechner. Speaking in San Diego at Comic-Con, Jordan showed that, if it had not been for the 'lure of a Disney/Bruckheimer big budget summer film' being "too hard to resist"', we may have had no real life Jake Gyllenhaal as the Prince, but instead an animated feature with some starry voiceover.


Jordan made it clear that the film will stick to the original Sands of Time and not to the less successful two sequels. Also character development will be central: "You want to be taken on an emotional journey... You want to care about the characters." 'Mechner did say that the film, which stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Prince Dastan, will have a large cast of characters and have a much larger scope then just running around the insides of a single palace.' Mecher also echoed the recent words of Jerry Bruckheimer and said 'he was very pleased with the cast that has been assembled for the film'.

Thanks to visiting Flickrs we can get a glimpse of one of these sets, located where another summer blockbuster was filmed, Gladiator.


Another site reports that Jordan did address the matter of why a western (albeit a sensationally gorgeous and gifted one - I added that bit) actor was chosen for the Persian role: '"Yeah, they looked at a huge range of actors," he said. "There are hundreds of great actors that could've done the job, but you end up picking one."' Well, if you have to pick one actor in the world....


And here we learn that 'Due to secrecy, [Mecher] would not reveal what powers the prince might have in the movie or discuss key plot elements. He expects the film to be rated PG or PG-13 and for its level of violence to be along the lines of other summer blockbusters such as Pirates of the Caribbean.'

A piece of Jake

Last week, British singer Adele was interviewed for the Sunday Mirror and she mentioned that she was a big fan of a certain part of Jake Gyllenhaal's anatomy: 'I like a good back. I like Jake Gyllenhaal’s back. In that film with Jennifer Aniston, The Good Girl, when he’s banging her, his back was so fit, even my mum was like, “Wow!” So a good back and a sense of humour. I don’t like fit boys who aren’t funny. I’d prefer an ugly boy who was really funny.’ Fortunately, with Jake you get fit and funny. Admittedly, all this is slightly mitigated by Adele also admitting to fancying Chris Moyles, but it's good to hear that both Adele and 'even' her mum know a good back when they see one.


So, any excuse gratefully grabbed to search out some of my favourite pictures of some of Jake's favourite pieces - I should point out, however, that I have not included Jake's face in this post because there is not enough broadband width in the world for that much appreciation (having said that, a couple of favourite face pictures are included above, in the PoP section of the post).

Jake's arms particularly look good when they're working and doing useful tasks - such as carrying a bike over his head. Always easier than wheeling it along the ground, I've found.


It's no secret that I'm not a foot person - unless the feet are wrapped in Nike or knee-length black leather riding boots - therefore this was more of a challenge.


By contrast, I'm very fond of Jake's other extremities.


Sometimes, a glimpse is all you get and all you need.



Sometimes we get a bit more...


Jake looks good from side to side...



...and from back to front.



Legs - just no end in sight.




Have I missed a bit?

Finally, this video presents E!s sexiest movie star No 8 - Jake Gyllenhaal - in which you can see Jake flirting with cameras, interviewers and fans, as well as uttering the classic lines: 'Who wants a piece? How are you?' (before giving the interviewer a peck on the cheek), 'I feel sexy, yeah, I do feel sexy' and 'I do like getting naked on set.' But why no.8, eh?



Includes pictures from IHJ and links.