Hollywood's Disney Day! Jake Gyllenhaal shown 'running around, fighting, doing some jumps' and there's time travel...

There are people in the world who have this week seen raw footage from the Prince of Persia and have seen video of Jake Gyllenhaal discussing his role. Yesterday was the Walt Disney Showcase at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, during which we learnt that Disney are making enough movies during the next few years to circle the earth eight times over in DVDs.


But never mind, because, in addition to another Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and another National Treasure movie, and another Tron movie (this is a good thing!), a movie starring Johnny Depp as The Lone Ranger, we are being tempted into the cinemas with Jake Gyllenhaal as the Prince of Persia - and, you know what? they have me.


While we wait for more accounts of what was seen and heard by the lucky few, this is what we've heard so far today: One site said 'It looked really cool!' (although they had yet to make their mind up about Jake...) Here is what another said: 'It was a montage, basically, with narration of what the film was about cut together w/ interviews w/ Bruckheimer, Jake and a couple other cast members. It showed him running around, fighting, doing some jumps, showed some very rough animatics and storyboarded together shots, some details about the villains trying to get the Dagger. A cool villain with a purple cloak whose arms turned to snakes and he thrust them into the ground. They went after someone looking like TREMORS. Jake looked good with his painted 300 abs I'm sure. Looks promising though thus far.'


While ignoring the 'painted' abs comment, there are several things to note here about the project. Firstly, this film is receiving so much attention now, we can expect to be bombarded with tasters during the coming year or so and we should be prepared for so many DVD extras we won't know what to do with them, especially if Jake has been filmed talking about his role already. Secondly, Jake is 'running around, fighting, doing some jumps'. I ask for little more in life than that.


This site said: 'We got an early look at Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which featured a ripped Jake Gyllenhaal as the lead. It seems the movie will stick fairly close to the plot of the video games, and time travel will play a significant role.' Time Travel? I need to know more.


Yesterday, we included a look at Ben Cooke, Jake and Daniel Craig's stunt double. It seems Jake is not the only one with a double in Prince of Persia - Ben Kingsley has one too. Here is an anecdote from the travel diary of a Peace Corps traveller in Morocco: [In Ouarzazate] 'I tried taking my friend to see the Taourirt Kasbah, an old mud fort near the center of town, but we very nearly walked into Sir Ben Kingsley's stunt double as they shot what looked like a funeral procession in a small strip in front of the Kasbah. The movie is called "Prince of Persia," and filming the probably 2 second shot of the back of Kingsley's character riding down near a "village" with mourners wailing and a black carriage following was more fun than it should have been. We thought it was Sir Ben himself, and looked rather foolish, but had fun trying to take pictures as my little security friend pointed out people who had cameras out and then his friend, nicknamed "The Beef" walked over threateningly at them and pretended like he was going to tear them limb to limb.'


'A tour bus pulled through and stopped right in front of the Kasbah (we sat on stadium-like steps across the street) and they all had cameras and were taking pictures, so we cheered them on, clapping and screaming; other spectators around us first were confused, then joined in. I made friends with the little baby security man, who spoke Tashelheit, but he told me he couldn't run any notes to the other side of the street. I'd have invited them to Tamazitinu, but, eh… a lost opportunity. I guess I won't be making tagine for Sir Ben or Jake Gyllenhaal any time soon. Or their stunt doubles.'


It is my own experience, that you should always beware 'The Beef' on film sets and red carpets. So ears open and eyes to the ground (or is that the other way around?) to see what we can find out about Disney Day in Hollywood.


Includes pictures from IHJ.