Jake Gyllenhaal is the PRINCE OF PERSIA!!

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Posted by Matt Holmes. Last modified on May 21st, 2008 at 12:59am

Jake Gyllenhaal is the PRINCE OF PERSIA!!

The Hollywood Reporter say that Jake Gyllenhaal will play the lead role in the anticipated movie adaptation of the popular video game Prince of Persia.

Jake’s a decent actor and all but I’m afraid this is horrible, horrible casting!

First of all, why couldn’t they have gone and found a Persian or failing that, a Persian looking actor to play the Prince of frikkin’ Persia?

And secondly - possibly most importantly. Gyllenhaal has no charisma. I swear he doesn’t. Boring as shit.

What I would have gone for is an Orlando Bloom fresh faced type. I’m not saying Orlando Bloom himself but I’m saying a young looking guy who actually looks physically like an old 60’s style action adventure hero. Some one you can actually get behind.

Gyllenhaal is fine at playing neurotic and ordinary but he’s never been likeable to me. He’s not an actor to easily get behind and in an adventure film like this, I think he might be out of his range quite honestly. Sometimes actors should stay away from blockbusters and this one reminds me a lot of the Edward Norton casting in The Incredible Hulk.

Also cast in the film is upcoming Bond girl Gemma Arterton. She will play the love interest in the Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) film for Walt Disney Pictures.

In the fantasy adventure, Gyllenhaal will play Dastan, a young prince in sixth century Persia who must join forces with Tamina (Arterton), a feisty and exotic princess, to prevent a villainous nobleman from possessing the Sands of Time, a gift from the gods that can reverse time and allow its possessor to rule the world.

Jerry Bruckheimer is producing the film which at this stage is set for a release next June where it is expected to fill the gap left behind by the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

Loved the video game… always thought it had unlimited potential as a film series but often you live and die by your lead casting. I’m hoping I’m wrong but Jake doesn’t seem a good fit for this.

Production begins in July.

Categories: Casting, Jake-Gyllenhaal, Movie News, gemma-arterton, mike newell, prince of persia

6 Comments »

I would really like to see the reaction of every person who sees the teaser when they learn the a White guy is the Prince of Persia. It’ll be funny.

Comment by Lencho | May 21, 2008

“Gyllenhaal has no charisma.”

I agree 100%. He is by no means a bad actor, but he has no charisma. He needs to be doing smaller “internal” psychological dramas, not broad swashbuckling daring-do. That’s even ignoring the fact that he’s entirely too white bread to be the Prince of PERSIA.

Comment by Hellen | May 21, 2008

In all fareness it will make money, after all you’ll have every woman an gay in the world goin just hoping that Gyllenhall will get is kit off, not to mention all the young 20 sumthin guys that want a body like that.

Comment by Welshboy | May 21, 2008

Being half-Persian all I can say is that he has Persian eye-brows, at least. That’s a plus. On the other hand, he is more likely to trip over his sword than actually wield it. He has no physical presence whatsoever.
On the producers casting an Iranian for this role. Well, I wasn’t holding my breath for that to happen anyway. Historically, oriental roles were almost never cast with people from the Orient. And Iranians are only allowed to play themselves if they are bad guys.
Remember Rudolpho Valentino playing the Sheikh, or what’s his face playing the Arab in the 13th Warrior or Morgan Freeman playing the Arab in Robin Hood? Willem Dafoe playing Jesus? John Landis playing an Iranian terrorist?
Actually, there just aren’t all too many Persian actors with name recognition around anyway… Wait a sec! They should make Omid Djalili the Prince of Persia (You know, the guy from Gladiator, the Mummy, Mean Machine…). He has physical presence and that film would be great comedy!

Comment by Phoenix | May 21, 2008

I wouldn’t say that Gyllenhaal has no charisma and it’d be nice to see him try his hand at a leading action male role. His speciality is tormented internal characters though - that’s what he does best (Zodiac, Brokeback Mountain, Donnie Darko, so on).

I totally agree though that this is terrible casting from an ethnic point of view. It’s disappointing. It’s hard to believe that Hollywood is still purporting the same kind of racial politics that make films from the 1950s look ridiculous.

Comment by James Clayton | May 21, 2008

For me personally, Gyllenhaal def has a lot of charisma…whether he is the best choice for playing the Prince of Persia though is another question!

Comment by Luisa | May 21, 2008