Thank God it’s not Michael Bay.
Variety say that Jerry Bruckheimer has put an offer out to director Mike Newell to helm the big budget Prince of Persia feature for Disney, with meetings already taken place this week and negotations at an advanced stage. Newell is a veteran British film-maker whose last blockbuster fantasy movie was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire two years ago.
He also gave us the excellent Donnie Brasco in 1997 and the comedy/drama movies Four Weddings and a Funeral, Mona Lisa Smile, Enchanted April and Pushing Tin.
Hey, why not give it to Newell. He’s a proven director with a number of good films on his CV and although I know little about Potter, his movie was pretty successful right?
The script comes from the writer of The Day After Tomorrow and the creator of the video game and is seen as Disney’s next big tentpole to match Pirates of the Caribbean.
If they get the cast right here, then this film has great potential to be a cool new franchise. There’s some many sequels and reboots right now that this one could really be a breath of fresh-air.
4 Comments
Good move. Anyone is better than Michael Bay.
All the Hollywood stars are too white bread for this flick. Who do they have really? Matthew McConaughey? Shia LaBeauf? Bruce Willis? If Hollywood needs a bankable Persian prince looking guy, they are out of luck.
Argh, a few things make me uneasy here. First thing is the term “tentpole” release. It really grates on me for some reason.
Other thing: even though Prince of Persia would indeed be a breath of fresh-air amongst the sequel-reboot heavy franchises we have right now, I’m not enthusiastic at it being a Disney/Bruckheimer endeavour.
The video game had a young blonde guy as the character. So they need a young blonde. Tatum Channing might fit.