You know that Prince
of Persia movie that’s been simmering at Disney for month after month?
Well, Disney’s Oren Aviv and Jerry Bruckheimer have offered the directing gig
to Mike Newell, the man who is currently awating critical savagery for his Love
In The Time Of Cholera. Newell has met with Disney and the ‘Heimer
about the film, which they’d probably like to see him tackle based on Harry
Potter And The Goblet Of Fire; obviously David Yates and Alfonso Cuaron
are busy.
Disney’s got a lot on the
fire already and supposedly isn’t trying to make this any sort of short-term
project thanks to the strike. There’s a draft in place (by Jeffrey Nachmanoff
and game creator Jordan Mechner) but there’s no way the project is going to
ride that draft into pre-production without an available writer to polish and
re-work, whether that’s Machmanoff (I rather hope not) or someone else.
In other words, Disney is
courting Newell for a deal that is dependent upon the willingness of at least
three Hollywood guilds to work over the next six months, which means that
Prince of Persia isn’t actually any closer to a reality.
UPDATE: The Reelz Channel has Newell talking about the possible Prince of Persia flick at last weekend’s Love In The Time of Cholera junket. The piece claims that he’s ready to go, pending a strike resolution. "It’s all about the Dagger of Time," he told the site. We’ll see where this goes after a guild resolution.