The Prince of Persia gets a sidekick and Maggie goes to work with Sam Mendes

Last seen wearing a leather wrap and chasing mammoths down the sides of Egypt's pyramids, 10,000 BC's Reece Ritchie has now signed up to be in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. And, according to the report, he will be playing the friend and sidekick of the Prince, who is to be played by Jake Gyllenhaal.


'The Disney film, which is being directed by Mike Newell (Harry Potter and Donnie Brasco) and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, is due for release in August 2009. It follows the Playstation computer game classic about a prince who teams up with a rival princess to stop an angry ruler from unleashing a sandstorm that could destroy the world. After attending auditions in London in January, Reece received the call that he'd got the part at the weekend and this means that he will be off to Morocco for filming of the video game adaptation in June. With the project also set to be filmed at the UK Pinewood Shepperton studios, Gyllenhaal, who has appeared in The Day After Tomorrow and Brokeback Mountain, plays the prince with Ritchie being his accomplice and best friend. The part of Princess Farah has yet to be announced.'


Whether or not this serves as confirmation, it does add credence to the rumour that Jake's next project will be Prince of Persia, with filming (in Morocco and London) to follow hard on the heels of Nailed. It also makes Jake's involvement in Roland Emmerich's 2012 - also due to start filming very soon - less likely. I am intrigued that Prince of Persia could well star two of Roland Emmerich's previous leading men and, instead of Jake and Reese in 2012, we could get Jake and Reece in Prince of Persia. For me, any film that could bring Jake to the UK is going to get my thumbs up (especially a film in which, for the Prince, a shirt is an optional extra).


So I'm going to say it again, it's a small world after all and, to emphasise this, the news came today from Variety that Maggie Gyllenhaal has signed up to replace Toni Collette in Sam Mendes' new untitled comedy. Sam Mendes, of course, directed Maggie's brother and other half in Jarhead.


The Focus Features comedy, 'which stars John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph, is about a young couple who travel around the U.S. searching for a place to put down roots. Dave Eggers and wife Vendela Vida penned the original screenplay. Gyllenhaal will play a bohemian college professor who is an old friend of the character played by Krasinski. Collette dropped out of the film due to scheduling delays on the shoot, which recently got under way in Connecticut. Gyllenhaal begins lensing her role next week.'

'Lensing her role' - now there's an expression you don't hear every day. This isn't a leading role and so may fit in nicely before Maggie goes off to Tasmania to film with Paul Bettany. Going off on a bit of a tangent, if filming is due to start next week, this may indicate that Peter Sarsgaard is now finishing off filming An Education in England.


'The most beautiful thing that's ever been created'

Talking of going off on a tangent... Amy MacDonald, the Scottish singstress and self-confessed Gyllenhaalic, has been playing The Living Room in New York City. Amy's album 'This is the Life' has been a huge success in the UK and is shortly to be released in the US. The song LA is reputed to be all about a certain 'boy named J', or, as the reviewer of the NYC gig says, 'the man that Macdonald once declared “the most beautiful thing that’s ever been created."' No argument there and I heartily recommend the CD which has many fine tracks on it, in addition to the one inspired by Jake.


Includes pictures by IHJ.