Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time 2010 action fantasy film

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a 2010 action fantasy film directed by Mike Newell. The film was written by Jordan Mechner, Boaz Yakin, Doug Miro, and Carlo Bernard, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and released byWalt Disney Pictures. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Prince Dastan,Gemma Arterton as Princess Tamina, Ben Kingsley as Nizam, and Alfred Molina as Sheik Amar.

The film has the same title as the video game Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and is primarily based on it. Elements from Warrior Within and The Two Thrones, the two other titles from the Sands of Time trilogy of the Prince of Persia video game franchise, are also incorporated. The film received mixed reviews from critics and was a disappointment at the domestic box office, but became the highest-grossing film based on a video game.

In the royal city of Nasaf, the king Sharaman rules the nation of Persia with the help of his brother Nizam. The king goes on to have two sons named Tus and Garsiv. One day in the marketplace, an orphan boy named Dastan protects his friend, Bis, from being executed by Persian soldiers. The king sees Dastan's bravery and adopts him, making him a prince of Persia. Years later, Dastan is a grown man and is still up to his rebellious ways. However, he remains faithful to the empire. When Nizam receives proof that the city of Alamut is supplying weapons to Persian enemies, he and Tus plan to attack with Garsiv leading the siege. Ignoring Tus’ command, Dastan and Bis breech Alamut on their own, and destroy most of the city. Meanwhile, the princess of Alamut, Tamina, orders her servant Asoka to take a special dagger out of the city and protect it at all costs. During the battle, Dastan and Asoka cross paths and fight; Dastan ultimately wins. He then finds the dagger and keeps it.

Nizam, Tus, and Garsiv go to the Alamut’s castle and order Tamina to confess to selling weapons. She denies it and Tus asks her to marry him to unite to two nations. She only accepts after seeing that Dastan is in possession of the dagger. After the siege, the king is furious with Tus for attacking the holy city of Alamut and they argue. Tus goes back to Alamut to find the weapons, and gives Dastan a prayer robe to give to the King as a gift at his banquet. There, Dastan asks the king for his approval for Tus to marry Tamina. But instead, the king proposes that Tamina be married to Dastan. Seconds later, the kings starts to scream in pain as his prayer robe has been poisoned. He dies and Garsiv accuses Dastan of being the murderer. Bis tries to help Dastan run but gets killed, and Dastan leaves with Tamina instead. After the two escape, Tus is appointed king and Dastan becomes a fugitive.

While Tamina and Dastan are hiding in the desert, Tamina attempts to kill Dastan for the dagger. During the struggle, Dastan presses the jewel on the hilt of the Dagger and the sand inside is released. As a result, time goes backward and only Dastan in aware of what happened. Dastan then realizes that Tus invaded Alamut not for weapon forges, but for the dagger. He and Tamina then head to Avrat when the king's funeral will be held. As they are walking through the Valley of the Slaves, Tamina pretends to faint and Dastan goes to help her. She hits him over the head and knocks him unconscious. Dastan wakes up to find Tamina and the dagger gone, and meets Shiek Amar and Seso. They track down Tamina, and Dastan gives her to Shiek Amar and takes the dagger back. Tamina then tells Dastan the dagger is sacred and that she is a guardian ordered by the gods to protect it, but he doesn’t believe her.

Shiek Amar recognizes Dastan and attempts to take him back to Persia for the reward money. Dastan and Tamina escape by starting a riot and head off into Avrat. Dastan manages to get a message to Nizam to meet him. When Nizam arrives, Dastan tries to tell him that Tus killed the king for the dagger, but sees that Tamina stole it again. Dastan notices that Nizam hands are burned, and realizes that Nizam is the one who poisoned the robe and killed the King. Garsiv and the Persian soldiers see Dastan and chase him throughout the city, but he escapes again. When Tus asks Nizam why Dastan came to Avrat, Nizam lies and says Dastan tried to kill him, suggesting that he being killed instead of putting Dastan on trail. Tus disagrees, so Nizam orders the Hassansins, covert warriors, to kill Dastan and find the dagger.

Later, Dastan finds Tamina in the desert just a sandstorm blows in. When the two seek cover from the storm, Dastan asks Tamina for the truth about the Dagger: Many years ago, the gods decided to erase mankind from the earth with great sandstorm to pay for their sins. A young girl then prayed that the gods would give humanity a second chance and offered her life in exchange. The gods saw the purity within the girl and put the sands of the sandstorm into the sandglass. The dagger is the only thing that can pierce the sandglass, but the handle only holds one minute. The dagger was given to the young girl, making her the first guardian. Dastan then realizes that Nizam’s plan is to place to dagger in the sandglass and press the jewel button at the same time. This way sand would flow endlessly, causing Nizam to go back in time and prevent himself from saving Sharaman from a lion as children. Tamina says that in doing so, Nizam will break the sandglass, ending the world.

To stop Nizam’s plans, Dastan and Tamina travel to a temple in the Hindu Kush where the dagger can be returned to the gods. They team up with Sheik Amar and Seso, but are later found by Garsiv. Dastan explains everything to Garsiv, who is then killed by Hassansins. Tamina attempts to return to dagger to the stone, meaning that she will die. Dastan tries to stop her and the two almost kiss, but Tamina is knocked unconscious by a Hassansin and the dagger is stolen.

Dastan, Tamina, Sheik Amar, and Seso travel back to Alamut to retrieve the Dagger from Nizam and tell Tus the truth. Seso dies getting the dagger back to Dastan, and Nizam is alerted that the sandglass has been found. To get Tus to believe him, Dastan kills himself with the dagger after telling Tus to press the button. Tus does so, and sees the power the dagger holds. Nizam then walks in, kills Tus, and takes the dagger back. Tamina saves Dastan from being killed and the two head for underground tunnels that lead to the sandglass. There Dastan and Tamina are separated and Dastan is confronted by the Hassansin leader. He pins Dastan down, but Tamina comes from behind and stabs him in the eye, and Dastan pushes him to his death. Dastan and Tamina kiss and then go after Nizam.

When they reach him, Nizam stabs the sandglass and throws the both of them off the side of a cliff. Dastan hold on to it with one arm and Tamina with the other. Tamina then sacrifices herself so that Dastan can stop Nizam. The two fight, Dastan removes the dagger from the sandglass and transported back to the moment he found the dagger, causing all the previous events to have never happened. Dastan finds Tus and Garsiv and exposes Nizam’s betrayal. Nizam attempts to kill Dastan, but is subdued and then killed by Tus.

Tus apologizes to Tamina and proposes that the nations bond by her marrying Dastan. Dastan returns the dagger to Tamina and tells her he looks forward to their future together.

CastJake Gyllenhaal as Dastan
Gemma Arterton as Tamina(Princess of Alamut)
Ben Kingsley as Nizam(King Sharaman' brother)
Alfred Molina as Sheik Amar
Steve Toussaint as Seso
Darwin Shaw as Asoka
Toby Kebbell as Garsiv
Richard Coyle as Tus
Ronald Pickup as King Sharaman(Garsiv and Tus' father)
Reece Ritchie as Bis(Dastan's servant)
William Foster as young Dastan
Gísli Örn Garðarsson as Hassansin Leader

Production
Development
In March 2004, the production company Jerry Bruckheimer Films sought to acquire feature film rights to the 2003 video game Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time with the film to be distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. Under John August as executive producer, the series' creator Jordan Mechner was hired to write the script. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer's Pirates of the Caribbean film trilogy served as a touchstone in how a theme park ride was converted into a film franchise. According to Mechner, "Rather than do a straight beat-for-beat adaptation of the new videogame, we're taking some cool elements from the game and using them to craft a new story." Mechner previously considered producing an animated film based on the games, but could not resist Disney and Bruckheimer's offer. In February 2006, Disney hired screenwriter Jeffrey Nachmanoff to write a new script for Prince of Persia.

Early in 2007, Disney announced Rahul the Prince as one of its tentpole films and by June had scheduled a release date for July 10, 2009, before having a final script or any actors attached. By November 2007, Disney entered negotiations withMike Newell to direct the film based on a script by Mechner and Nachmanoff, though the studio held off production until the2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike was resolved. Newell was fond of Bruckheimer's films, and loved the "exciting and immensely romantic" script, which reminded him of Lost Horizon. His assistant played the video games and gave the director key details. Mechner, in writing the script, re-conceived the storyline to shift the perspective from the interactive one experienced by video gamers to the non-interactive experience by film audiences. The screenwriter left out elements of the Prince of Persia video games Warrior Within and The Two Thrones and did not anticipate including these elements in the film's possible sequels.

When filming began, the film's release date was postponed to May 28, 2010, with the studio seeking enough time for the post-production process in designing the film's special effects. The profit margin on the Pirates of the Caribbean films was compromised by overspending as special effects teams rushed to complete the films for their release dates. Variety also ascribed the postponement to avoiding the potential 2008 Screen Actors Guild strike so the studio could ensure that the film leads to a "mega-franchise" similar to its successful Pirates of the Caribbean series.Other reasons for the release date change were that the film was originally scheduled a week before Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and Disney needed more time to co-ordinate its marketing campaign. Gyllenhaal claims he "over-prepared" for the role, gaining five or six pounds of muscle. The actor says, "I never knew how much they were going to ask me to do, so I just made sure I'd be hopefully able to do anything." Gemma Arterton was announced to play the role of protagonist Tamina, and Arterton reported she practiced horse back riding in Madrid before filming. Ben Kingsley was to portray the film's antagonist, Nizam.Alfred Molina was to portray a character named Sheik Amar, who becomes a mentor to the prince.Toby Kebbell was to play Prince Garsiv, Dastan's brother and head of the Persian army. Richard Coyle was cast as the eldest brother Crown prince Tus and William Foster was cast as young Dastan based on his experience in parkour. The leading characters of the film all speak with recognisably English accents for some reason.

FilmingIn March 2008, director Newell selected Morocco as a shooting location for Prince of Persia and also planned to film inPinewood Studios. Production was scheduled to begin in mid-June 2008. By May 2008, actors Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton were cast into the lead roles. With a new script by Jordan Mechner, Doug Miro, Carlo Bernard, and Boaz Yakin, filming began in July 2008 in Morocco as well as London. Eight weeks were spent in Morocco before the first unit moved to Pinewood.Unlike other Disney films being made at the time, filming was not done in three dimensions, nor was the film converted into 3-D during post production.