You can see from the trailer just how much of that "action/adventure" thrust comes from what look like platforming puzzles writ large with Jake Gyllenhaal. Those of you that played the Sands of Time games, though, will be expecting a lot more than just jumping around. You want to see time-rewinding and sand monsters, don't you?

Well, too bad, says Mechner. To get the whole time-rewinding mechanic into the movie, some things had to be changed or cut completely.

"In the movie, the [Dagger of Time]'s powers are much more limited," he said. If they'd left it the same, after all, the Prince would be omnipotent and the plot would get mighty boring.

So instead, there will be "consequences" for using the Dagger and there won't be sand monsters Jake Gyllenhaal fights to recharge it.

Sadly, Mechner wouldn't say what kind of, with whom there would be, or how many "boss fights" we could expect to see in the film. But he did say that producer Jerry Bruckheimer — that master of big, big action/adventure movies — knows what he's doing when it comes to creating an experience that everybody including non-gamers will be into. And because it's set in a sort of sub-genre of "1001 Arabian Nights" action/adventure, Prince of Persia the movie will probably go a long way toward appealing to the Pirates of the Caribbean-starved masses.

If only we could count on it to unseat Twilight. Alas, I'm not seeing much chemistry between Gemma Arterton and Jake Gyllenhaal in the trailer's banter snippets.

What do you make of the trailer?

P.S. No, Mechner didn't say anything about film sequels. However, he did say Ubisoft has something big planned to announce in conjunction with the film's marketing as the release date draws nearer. Dare we hope for a video game sequel?

If you want to see it for yourself, sit tight – it runs with the premier of 2012 on November 13. Also I'm sure it'll hit the interwebs well before then. If you want to know how I felt about what I saw, read on. But know that I still haven't forgiven Ben Kingsley for BloodRayne.

Now I realize that once you've played Gandhi on the silver screen (and won an Oscar for it), everything else must pale in comparison. But seriously, Sir Kingsley, would it have killed you to show up for fencing lessons in preparation for filming BloodRayne? Just because the director sucks doesn't mean you have to.

As it turns out, Sir Kingsley only has two lines in the trailer (which is still twice as much as what comic relief character Alfred Molina gets) – so I can't judge his performance based entirely on that. The majority of the trailer is Jake Gyllenhaal leaping off of things while Gemma Arterton narrates in a quasi-mystical voice about the Dagger of Time and its powers.

Like all action trailers, there's a lot of quick cutting between unrelated sequences. Someone opens a door, the Prince looks around like he's confused and the Princess – called Tamina, not Farah – walks around looking pretty and exchanges PG-rated flirts with the Prince. Some dudes in black robes show up, looking like they just walked off the set of The Scorpion King and there's a lot of sand and gold stuff.

An interesting scene I noticed being repeated was a glowing fiery vortex within the Dagger of Time. You can see it in the trailer when the Prince activates it during a fight to rewind time. You see it again at the end of the trailer only somehow the Prince and some other person appear to be inside the Dagger, swirling around the vortex. Seems like a climactic boss fight to me. Also a temple-looking place collapses – it's all very Indiana Jones.

Speaking of which, someone pointed out to me the irony in having Alfred Molina play a comic relief character in an Indiana Jones-esque film. I'd completely forgotten that he's the guy in Raiders of the Lost Ark with the famous line "Throw me idol, I'll throw you the whip." How about that.

After the screening of the trailer, we were given a little bit of Q&A time with Jordan Mechner – but you'll have to sit tight for that as well.

Be honest – how many of you are going to go see the film 2012 just so you can watch the Prince of Persia trailer on the big screen? I totally did that with Scooby-Doo for a Harry Potter trailer and again with some other terrible film for a Two Towers trailer.

Image Cred
Image Cred

Gamasutra reports that Mechner sees potential for the film to continue on its own way in sequels that aren't necessarily bound to any of the Prince of Persia games. This is part of his theme of evolution where the series is enriched by the unpredictability of video game and film production cycles.

At least I think that's what he's saying. I kind of zeroed in on this one part where Mechner mentioned the potential for future video game sequels – which I'd much rather see, given the poor history of game-to-movie conversions:

"I don't have a preconception of what the Prince of Persia game in 10 years should look like. I think we're at a good place because the games that have been done up to this point have been so scattered and the franchise isn't locked into one place, but I think people have feelings about which parts they like best... The next game can take the best parts of the franchise and build from there."

GDC China: Jordan Mechner Charts Prince Of Persia's Creative Evolution [Gamasutra]

Image Cred

The Prince of Persia graphic novel anthology, due out in April of next year, features six short stories authored by Mechner and serves as a prequel to The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Along with creating the original Prince of Persia video game, Mechner also penned the screen story for the film, making him ridiculously qualified to pen a bridge between the two. This will be Mechner's first published book, though not his last, as he is currently collaborating with artists LeUyen Pham and Alex Puvilland on an original graphic novel trilogy for First Second Books.

Speaking of collaborating, the graphic novel will feature exclusive cover art created by Todd McFarlane of Spawn fame, and promises interior art by some of the biggest names in the comics industry. The book will be available in both soft cover and hardcover editions, with an initial print run of 125,000 copies.

Jordan Mechner will be joined by McFarlane, along with Bernard Chang, Tommy Lee Edwards, and Cameron Stewart, at the San Diego Comic-Con this Friday, discussing the creation of the graphic novel during the Disney Press panel.

The Fathom comic book, created by the late Michael Turner, follows the story of Aspen, a member of an aquatic race of humans called the Blue, discovering her heritage and the power to control water after being raised by normal, land-based human beings. Mechner is penning the script, making this his second stab at screen writing a major feature film, with the upcoming live-action Prince of Persia film being his first, along with a couple of documentary credits. It should be relatively easy for him though, seeing as he has a wealth of comic book material to draw reference from.

Perhaps even more exciting that Mechner's writing is the fact that Transformers co-star Megan Fox has been tagged to play Aspen. I don't normally rawr, but in this case...rawr.

Megan Fox looking at Fathom, Jonah Hex [The Hollywood Reporter]

October 20, 1985 [Jordan Mechner, via Boing-Boing]

The former, Mechner's first commercial game, an early 2D fighter published by Brøderbund and known for its fluid animation, is planned to get an update (of sorts). Details on the Karateka project weren't provided, but Mechner teased the crowd by saying "I can safely say it's not going to be the way that you expect." He did, however, say he would be directly "involved," a claim he didn't make about Ubisoft's recent Prince of Persia releases.

Mechner also let the crowd in on the particulars of a hilarious Easter egg in the original Karateka.

Asked by a fan about two of the game's quirks — that Karateka could be played with the screen flipped upside down if the floppy was inserted the wrong way and if the "volcano" in the background erupted randomly, killing both fighters instantly — Mechner cleared up both. No, the one-in-a-million eruption was just a rumor, he said, but the inverted floppy trick was certainly by design.

One of the Karateka programmers handling copy protection discovered a way to flip the screen with a simple change to the bit table. The was still playable, but "really hard."

"We thought it would be hilarious if we burned the flipped version of the game to the other side of the disk," he recounted, thinking that Brøderbund execs wouldn't go for it "because it would require an assembly line change to actually burn the game onto both sides of the disk, which adds however many cents." In the end, they did go for it.

Mechner said he envisioned that someone would put the disk in upside down, then call tech support and get the explanation "Well, sir, you put the disk in upside-down."

"That person would think, for the rest of their life, that that's how software works."

Mechner said that in writing the script for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, that he essentially had to start from scratch, re-imagining the events of the time-bending video game of the same name. Expect carefully hidden allusions to past games in the series in both the movie and the graphic novel.

When asked about the casting of the film, Mechner told audience members, "I'm delighted with the casting of the movie." Listing off the core actors — Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley, Alfred Molina — Mechner then went on to express his faith in Newell as the film's director, calling him "an actor's director" and sounding very confident that even bit parts would be cast faithfully.

An audience member asked why the Prince, Dartan, wasn't... you know, Persian.

Mechner responded democratically to questions whether they'd looked at anyone of Persian descent.

"Yeah, they looked at a huge range of actors," he said. "There are hundreds of great actors that could've done the job, but you end up picking one."

He was less glowing about one of the more reviled entries in the series, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, about which he's been quoted in the past as saying "I'm not a fan."

"I don't like to criticize a particular game, basically what I meant to say was that the style wasn't my style. It wasn't what I would've done, but it is what it is," he said, addressing previous statements. "I'd rather focus on the positive and hope that the [new Prince of Persia game] is really awesome."

It doesn't sound like anything is guaranteed at this point on the game that may feature a polygonal Jake Gyllenhaal and a phoned in voice over performance, but if we know Hollywood and games based on movie licenses, regardless of the source material, I think we're in for a fun ride. Not so much a good video game, but a fun ride.

Triple Play of New Prince Entertainment [GameDaily]

Anyway, Newell's not just known for his ladylike fare in Four Weddings and a Funeral and Tin Cup. He's also got Donnie Brasco and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire under belt showing his craft doesn't just focus of the feminine. While it doesn't sound like the deal is sealed, it looks like Newell's schedule would allow for a chance to bring Prince of Persia to silver screens.

Disney, Bruckheimer talking 'Prince' [Variety]

POP Classic coming to XBLA next week [PALGN]