PoP trailer at D23 - we have tigers! - and Jake Gyllenhaal a superman on the moon

Jerry Bruckheimer gave Disney fans at Expo D23 a trailer of the Prince of Persia on Friday. He said it was incomplete but, despite that, the initial reaction is that the trailer, when it finally reaches the theatres, will be well worth the wait. We have action, we have thrills, we have snakes, we even have tigers (still no ostriches or camels but I live in perpetual hope), we have repartee and innuendo between Jake Gyllenhaal's Prince and Gemma Arterton's Tamina. Thanks to IGN for the thorough description. Let's hope we get to see it!


Here is what IGN says: 'A slice of light tears through the darkness, dissolving into grains of sand, blown away by the desert wind... A sweeping landscape of a far-off Persian city. A wind-beaten caravan making its way through the orange-lit desert. Dark, swirling clouds gather in the distance... A shot of the dagger. A long, curved blade. It's hand is clear, like an hour-glass, holding the titled Sands of Time... A shot of Jake Gyllenhaal as the Prince, standing on a wooden outcropping on the roof of a palace high above the city streets. This looks more like Assassin's Creed than Prince of Persia...'


'Narration by the Princess Tamina, played by Gemma Arterton. Some comic exchanges as they gallop along on horseback. Typical love-hate relationship... A chase through the alleys of a Persian city...An attacking tiger...A snake leaps toward the Prince, but the dagger pauses time just before the snake's gaping, venomous jaws can strike... A journey into the snow-capped mountains. Not just deserts, it seems... The Prince climbing up the towering, exterior walls of a castle as archers fire arrows... Shots of a villainous Ben Kingsley and hints of a more powerful, robe-cloaked demon controlling him.'


'Lastly, the Prince and Tamina enter a vast, underground tomb. It begins to crumble down around them, the high hallways collapsing, entire portions of the building tumbling down an incline as the Prince leaps and runs and ducks and rolls as audiences would, of course, expect. Overall, the trailer was beautifully shot, atmospheric, action-packed and exactly what one would hope from a Prince of Persia film.'


I cannot wait to see our leaping, running, ducking, rolling Prince and that is some understatement.


Meanwhile... Tweets continue of sightings of Jake in Pittsburgh and of theatres decked out in Prince of Persia posters!

Named Moon Project - the stresses of prelaunch

The Unnamed Moon Project appears to now be a possibly Named Moon Project - Moon. Doug Liman has again been blogging to the Ninjas about his project, which, it appears, may have gone past that safe point of no return. It may be Good to Go. But Doug sounds as if he is in that jittery stage we all face when something for which we care may soon fly free:


'I feel it’s within my control whether or not we make the Moon movie. It’s at that point where if the project doesn’t go it means either I messed something up or I’m choosing not to do it right now. But everything is sort of falling into place. Don’t get me wrong, this is a fickle business and anything can happen. Brad Pitt could announce tomorrow that he’s doing a Moon project (but you wouldn’t do that to me, would you Brad?) and suddenly someone beat us to the punch, or I could lose my star. What I don’t think will happen is a stalled project, and that’s because of the script. It’s crossed the critical threshold.'


It's revealing stuff and it is clear that the film still does not have a budget: 'There are action figures they can do to tie in with the film, there are video games — all this shit that studios need to justify and pay their overhead. All that ancillary stuff, the kind of stuff that The Bourne Identity could never generate and Fair Game could never generate. Look, I recognize that studios are businesses and they need to make money, and Paramount can make a ton of money on my Moon project, so that’s why it’s up to me to decide when this project is ready. As much as they have to greenlight my movie and agree to spend $100 million, I know that the carrot I’m dangling in front of them is ridiculously commercial — but I need to decide when it’s ready, when I can deliver a movie that’s worth it.'


'This movie will redefine action the way The Matrix redefined action. In Moon, they’re fighting in one-sixth gravity. You’ve just never seen that before. Ever. And you’ve never seen a car chase in one-sixth gravity, you’ve never seen fights in one-sixth gravity. It won’t look like any other movie. This affects the movie is so many ways. It’s all of the amazing things you can do once you embrace one-sixth gravity. You know, you’re literally Superman on the Moon.... Earth has six times the gravity of the Moon, so if you take anyone from Earth and move him to the Moon, he literally is a Superman. He can leap off an 80-foot cliff and survive easily. On the Moon, we can can have a real-version bullet time (from The Matrix). Our action sequences on Moon are as outrageous as Transformers or Star Trek but will be 100 percent real. Bourne is to the James Bond films as Moon will be to Transformers. Outrageous, but very real.' It sounds like Jake has quite a ride ahead of him - fingers crossed. I'm ignoring the Transformers comparison.


Inludes pictures from Disney on Twitter and Latino Review.