Movies based on video games have a strong tendency to suck. It’s unfortunate, but we’ve all seen it happen time and time again. Which is why I have such high hopes for the upcoming Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time movie which trailers really impressed me.

There’s also the fact that Jordan Mechner, the creator of the Prince of Persia franchise, is involved as head writer for the movie. In an interview with HeyUGuys (via WetDarkWild) he announced that be loves the new film and that he hopes gamers will too:

“Well, I hope they love it. I do. For me, Prince of Persia is the kind of movie that I’ve always loved – the ones that really inspired me to make games in the first place. It’s almost like an old fashioned, swashbuckling, romantic adventure.”

While he was never directly involved with the casting, he’s been very pleased with the final choices:

“Jake looks a lot like the prince in the game. He’s a great actor and I think for me he embodies a lot of the qualities that sort of define the kind of hero that I’ve always seen the Prince as. He’s a warrior, but he’s also got a sort of mischievous quality, a certain vulnerability and I think Jake brings that to the screen in a way that’s really appealing.

You know, I think Jake Gyllenhaal played Prince of Persia games. He was pretty into it. What’s interesting is that when I was in London to meet the craftspeople – the people behind the set design and costumes and so forth… all the people working behind the scenes. I found that a lot of them were real gamers and they were deeply into the Prince of Persia games.”

That final sentence really nails it for me. I think this movie’s going to rawk.

The net was abuzz yesterday about the possiblities of a new Prince of Persia game from Ubisoft, but the company is currently keeping mum on the whole thing.

At a preview event for the upcoming Prince of Persia film, an unnamed movie team member told Neoseeker that a new Prince of Persia game was set to be revealed in Spring 2010, but this person was very light on the details.

CVG was looking to check if the claims were true, but were issued a swift “no comment” from the developer/publisher.

Earlier this month it was also reported by Destructoid that PoP creator Jordan Mechner had filed of “Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands”.

Obviously all of this is mere speculation, but Ubisoft will have to wrap up their rebooted Prince of Persia franchise in some way or another. So I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that a new Prince of Persia is on its way. When, that’s a whole other issue.

And what is it with all the Prince of Persia news these days?

As you may already know, there’s a Prince of Persia movie being made. It’s being produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Donnie Brasco, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). Jordan Mechner, creator of the series, is also on board to oversee script rewrites and have the final say on how the adaptation is going to turn out.

According to a report from Neoseeker, a new Prince of Persia game will be announced by Ubisoft in the spring of next year. The news was confirmed at a trailer preview event for the movie at Bruckheimer studios.

“Our last bit of news is a juicy one: Ubisoft will be announcing a new Prince of Persia game in the spring, according to the team, but it’s not their place to give out any details.”

Awesome!

Downloadable content has become all the rage for game developers, and Ubisoft has decided to jump onto the bandwagon, by expanding their recent addition to a long beloved franchise; Prince of Persia.

The DLC will be titled “Epilogue” and “continues the story of the Prince and Elika with a brand-new epic adventure,” according to Ubisoft.

New stuff:
- New Region: The Underground Palace – A corrupted underground palace from which the Prince and Elika need to escape in a new epic journey.
- New Power: Energize – Reconstruct destroyed areas of the environment to create a path and rush through it before it vanishes.
- New high pace: The new trap challenge – The Prince and Elika will face more cunning foes, cleverer traps and level design, adding more to the difficulty level in over 3 hours of gameplay.
- New Attack: Sprinting Clash – A duel move that lets you or the enemy trigger a sprint attack, charging towards each other, clashing your weapons fiercely.
- New Unlockable Skins: Finish the game and unlock exclusively, from the early development of the game, the Prototype characters of the Prince and Elika.

A price has not been mentioned, but what we do know is the release date, which is February 26.

Full press release after the break

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