Remember, remember the 5th of November...

November 5 is Bonfire Night (aka Guy Fawkes Night) in Britain - the night when, traditionally, we stand in a cold dark field and burn an effigy or Guy on a big bonfire, while watching a firework display (dodging the sticks from the rockets as they fall back to earth), eating jacket potatoes wrapped in foil and drinking hot mulled wine.


The celebrations tonight mark the day when, back in 1605, Guy Fawkes and his cohorts attempted to blow up Parliament and the king by filling the cellars of Westminster with 36 barrels of gunpowder and setting them alight when King James arrived to open Parliament. They were rumbled and suffered terrible fates. As a result, even now, each year when the monarch arrives for the state opening of Parliament, a search is made of the cellars for rogues with their lit tapers.


Although democracy was an ill-developed concept back in early 17th-century Britain, this plot by Guy has become synonymous with undermining democracy itself. And it is so fitting that, on this day in 2008, we have seen democracy reassert itself with a force fit to send the blood rushing through our veins in sheer joy and relief that change has come - and all because every vote counts.


Prince Jake

Tomorrow night, there is every chance that Prince Dastan - that's Jake Gyllenhaal to you and me - will make an appearance on Entertainment Tonight. It's not possible for me to describe to you just how excited I am by the prospect so I'll leave that to your imagination... But it's a lot.


It looks like the publicity for Prince of Persia is beginning to snowball (snow sounds odd in this Persian context, but never mind) and I think that this is one project that we can count on Disney pushing to the front of our minds over the next 18 months or so. This enjoyable blog account, by a Disney reporter, describes his visit, and that of other journalists, to the set of PoP at Pinewood. 'The most exciting thing I've done here at Disney so far...for two days I went on a set visit to Pinewood Studios just outside of London where they are filming Prince of Persia. I got to tour the sets, see the costumes and weapons, watch them film a couple of scenes and do some stunts, as well as conduct a group interview with Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Kingsley, Jerry Bruckheimer and tons of other people working on the film! All the other journalists were cool and matter of fact, but it's my first time so I'm still pretty star struck and excited!'


'Oh and I got to hold the Dagger of Time for a good whole five minutes. I didn't want to put it down, I kept sidling back and picking it up again as discreetly as I could. It was the hero version, the proper heavy metal one used for closeups. It does look like the one in game and is absolutely gorgeous!'


This great account suggests that there will be reports from the set in the time to come, just to make sure we're all ready for May 2010. I just hope we see and hear the fruits of these set visits soon (and it all bodes well for those DVD extras...!)


Includes pictures from IHJ.