Disney Entices Mike Newell with Persian Royalty

Entertainment juggernaut Disney and action producer extraordinaire, Jerry Bruckheimer, are hoping to talk Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Donnie Brasco, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) into directing a planned live-action adaption of the successful video game, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

Official negotiations have yet to begin, but Newell did meet with Disney execs and Bruckheimer to discuss the project. The film’s script was written by Jeffrey Nachmanoff (The Day After Tomorrow) in collaboration with the game’s creator Jordan Mechner.

With the WGA strike looming over Hollywood like one of those alien space ships in Independence Day, there are no plans to move forward with production until it’s resolved.

Game video (and I berate Variety) after the jump! Alright Variety. Come on now. I know Tony Lazlo took exception to your apparent need to abbreviate competition to "competish" in some weird effort to be hip and cool. But now you’re shortening video game to "vidgame"? Does not typing those two letters and a space really save that much time and energy? You keep this up and soon you’re going to become the old guy at the party trying *way* too hard to be cool who clearly shouldn’t be there.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, game video. If you’re a bit of an older gamer (like me) you think of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zyQ_OVyhNE

PoP: Sands of Time is essentially an update of the original game. In addition to some sweet 3D graphics, the game updated the plot. If you really want to know what it’s about go here.