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Whenever RPGs come up in conversations, there’s one name that instantly pops into our heads: Todd Howard. Let’s be honest, despite the controversies, the man’s a legend. He’s the one leading the charge at Bethesda Game Studios and is responsible for blockbuster hits such as Fallout and The Elder Scrolls, which have completely changed how we experience open worlds. It’s hard to imagine what the gaming scene would’ve looked like without his influence.

So, what has allowed Howard to craft such legendary games? Well, he’s a gamer himself. Seriously, he lives and breathes video games, just like all of us. He, too, has some special games that have fired his creativity and changed his approach when it comes to crafting games. Wondering which titles hold a special place in his heart? Let’s take a look at the top 10 video games that Howard...

Let’s be honest here, Ubisoft hasn’t been having the best of times. In particular, 2024 proved to be a nightmare for the French publisher as its crown titles, such as Star Wars Outlaws, XDefiant, and Skull and Bones, failed to make a mark. While the highly controversial Assassin’s Creed Shadows has received positive reviews, the company is formulating new plans.

It’s been revealed that Ubisoft has established a brand-new subsidiary that will take over the licenses for the studio’s classic games such as Ghost Recon, Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed, and Rainbow Six Siege. Tencent has backed this new venture with a 25% stake by the end of this year.

The French-publisher is breaking off major titles into a new subsidiary. (Image via Ubisoft)

While it’s great to see that the French publisher wants to elevate its popular franchises, it’s still a shame that it won...

The Prince of Persia video game franchise was created by Jordan Mechner and kicked off in 1989. Ubisoft acquired the rights in 2001 and rebooted the property with the critically acclaimed Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time two years later.

Since then, multiple games have followed, including Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (2004), Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones (2005), Prince of Persia (2008), Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (2010), and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (2024).

A big screen adaptation was released in 2010 directed by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire helmer Mike Newell. It starred Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Kingsley, Gemma Arterton, and Alfred Molina.

A live-action take on the 2003 game, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was a critical failure but performed admirably at the box office with a $336.4 million global haul against a reported production budget of $150 million - $200 million.

In fact, it held the record for the highest-grossing...

The Prince of Persia video game series began in 1989, created by Jordan Mechner. Ubisoft picked up the rights in 2001, revamping the franchise with the highly praised Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time in 2003.

Since then, we’ve seen several titles in the series, like Warrior Within (2004), The Two Thrones (2005), Prince of Persia (2008), The Forgotten Sands (2010), and the latest The Lost Crown (2024).

In 2010, a movie adaptation directed by Mike Newell hit theaters. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Kingsley, Gemma Arterton, and Alfred Molina, this live-action take on The Sands of Time had a mixed reception.

Despite criticism, it earned $336.4 million globally, making it the highest-grossing video game movie until Warcraft overtook it in 2016. The film’s budget was reportedly between $150 million and $200 million.

New reports from scooper @MyTimeToShineH, via GameFragger, suggest Disney is developing a new Prince of Persia movie. It seems this project will be separate from the 2010 version, offering...

From Grease in a brawler to Kindergarten Cop in a classic survival horror, movies had a habit of unexpectedly popping up in 80s and 90s videogames.

There’s long been a link between movies and videogames. There were the earliest licenced games, such as Atari’s groundbreaking Star Wars cabinet or the same company’s slightly less successful E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial console tie-in.

Then there are games that take inspiration from the themes, production design or plot points of movies; Technos coin-op Renegade, when reworked for its western release, drew on the urban malaise of Walter Hill’s 1979 movie The Warriors, for example. Then there are all the games that have borrowed from the look of the Alien franchise, which are too numerous to mention.

Every so often, though, films used to make unexpected cameos in 1980s and 90s videogames. In some instances, their appearance was so brief,...

The Rogue Prince of Persia combines classic parkour and time-bending abilities with newer roguelike mechanics, delivering a new but familiar experience for fans of the franchise. Developed by the team behind Dead Cells, this title offers modern mechanics like procedurally generated stages to keep gameplay fresh. Set to enter Early Access on Steam, the game aims to evolve based on player feedback to enhance content and gameplay in the future.

A new Prince of Persia game is about to enter Early Access this month and is definitely one for fans of the roguelike genre to look out for. The Rogue Prince of Persia was announced in April 2024 along with a trailer as part of the Triple-i indie showcase that showed off its new, vibrant art style through an action-packed sequence featuring the parkour and time-bending abilities that the franchise is known for.

A longer sequence was also shown from the game's earlier levels,...

In the original Invincible comics, the titular character has all sorts of crossovers with heroes of other franchises. When making a TV show, that sort of IP intermingling is much trickier, but Invincible’s showrunner managed to tiptoe around those boundaries by including a web-slinging crossover in the Season 2 finale.

The Direct interviewed Invincible showrunner and producer Simon Racciopa to discuss the cameo at the end of the second season, which had been teased in trailers. In the final episode of the season, Mark Grayson (voiced by Steven Yeun), flies through one of Angstrom Levy’s multiversal portals, and ends up in a universe where he encounters Agent Spider. Voiced by The Spectacular Spider-Man’s Josh Keaton, Agent Spider is an obvious facsimile of the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, and his enemy, Omnipotus, is a parallel to Dr. Otto Octavius (Aka Doc Ock).

Related Invincible's Angstrom Levy Actor Admits Relating to...

There was much trepidation around the live-action adaptation of the incredibly popular manga and anime One Piece, but the first season of the Netflix show proved to be a huge success, becoming one of the platform's most watched live-action series upon release. Now, one of the show’s stars has gone online to answer fans’ burning questions about the upcoming second season.

A recent post on X, formerly known as Twitter, shows Jacob Gibson, who plays Usopp in the live-action remake of One Piece, doing a Q&a all about the show and its future. Gibson goes to the writers’ room in Cape Town, South Africa, where the outdoor scenes of the series have been shot –along with some necessary additional sets built at Cape Town Studios, such as the iconic ship of the Straw Hat Pirates, The Going Merry and Sanji’s boat-restaurant, the Baratie.

Usopp's actor Jacob Gibson...

While there are a lot of major games slated to drop in 2025 (Grand Theft Auto VI being chief among them), don’t sleep on 2024! There are a ton of exciting, hotly anticipated titles releasing next year that are primed to please fans of some of the longest-running franchises in gaming, some of whom have been waiting 20-plus years(!) to return to the worlds and characters they’ve grown to know and love.

Please just note that this list currently only includes games with a confirmed 2024 release date or release window. That means that you won’t find some of the more notable games that are currently only likely to be released in 2024 (like the upcoming Elden Ring Dlc). However, we will be updating this article as more titles receive confirmed 2024 release dates.

With that said, here are the biggest games releasing in 2024!

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

Ubisoft – January...

Once upon a time, fluidly realistic character animation was a new thing in gaming. In 1989, Jordan Mechner’s Prince of Persia gave us a groundbreaking rotoscoped avatar. In 1991, French developer Delphine Software pushed the medium into cinematic territory with the brief but dazzling Another World. The following year, Delphine delivered their masterpiece: Flashback. But it needs to be seen in context – like many gaming greats, returning to it today reveals a flawed experience.

There are shades of Total Recall in the cyberpunk plot, which involves your character, Conrad, trying to recover his memories and return to Earth. He begins in a jungle and works his way to New Washington, where he earns money doing mercenary jobs. After fighting through the “Death Tower” TV show (the best section), Conrad makes it back to Earth. But then – spoiler alert! – we discover that aliens are trying to take over the Earth, so he...

Ryan Lambie Mar 5, 2018

What do Grease, The Cannonball Run and 80s fighting game Ik+ have in common? Early performance capture...

These days, things like realistic animation and performance capture are a common sight in videogames - games as varied as L.A. Noire, The Last Of Us and Beyond: Two Souls all use mo-cap and actors to create their uncannily lifelike character movements. But 30 years ago, squeezing smooth, convincing animation into a computer was a far trickier proposition.

See related  Legion episode 8 review: Chapter Eight Legion episode 7 review: Chapter Seven

For its time, the 1987 fighting game International Karate + (often abbreviated to Ik+) looked stunning. Designed by British programmer Archer MacLean, and a sequel to his own International Karate, it allowed one or two players to fight one another in a fast, smooth virtual tournament. Although its design was inspired by earlier games of its type, including Data East's Karate Champ...

Heroes and Villains Entertainment is expanding its TV business by bringing on manager Henry Huang and promoting coordinator Robert Watts to manager of unscripted television.

Huang will be working with clients on both the scripted and unscripted side. He began his career at ICM before moving into management at Industry Entertainment. Huang most recently worked for Global Creative/Station 3 as a manager, and brings with him a diverse client list including writers Matthew Newman (“How To Make Love Like An Englishman”), Chris Pena (“Jane the Virgin”), Carla Ching (“Graceland”), TV director Marisol Adler and on-air personalities like Kat Odell (“Eat...

So, this is great: "Octopus City Blues" is the first game from Kuwait City-based Ghost in a Bottle Corporation. It's an adventure game about a listless, middle-aged octoblood junkie, tentacle cutter, and all-around chump named Kaf Kafkaryan and his unwitting role in changing Octopus City forever.

Octopus City is exactly what it sounds like: an urban, steam-powered dystopia built on the lifeblood of a giant cephalopod, its eight legs providing the foundation for eight inter-connected neighborhoods, the last bastions of human habitation on a planet wracked by a centuries-long ice storm.

If the weird-fiction-slash-noir premise doesn't sway you, maybe this trailer will:

Everything from the game's pixel art to its gruesome character designs to its deep indigos and violets is picture perfect. If nothing else, "Octopus City Blues" oozes style (and ectoplasm, probably).

"Ocotopus City Blues" is nominally an adventure game, but it clearly takes cues from any number of...

by Joseph Leray

Xbox 360 spokesbro Major Nelson has kindly detailed his company's Summer of Arcade promotion for us: it starts on August 7th and will feature four games that cost between 800 and 1200 Microsoft points (i.e., between $10 and $15).

Here's the breakdown:

'Brothers: a Tale of two Sons' launches August 7th for 1,200 Points

'Charlie Murder' launches August 14th for 800 Points

'Flashback' launches August 21st for 800 Points

'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows' launches August 28th for 1,200 Points

"Brothers" is an adventure game by Starbreeze Studios, the team behind the "Chronicles of Riddick" series, the first "Darkness" game, and the most recent "Syndicate" reboot. Players will control both of the titular brothers at the same time -- one on each analog stick -- guiding them through a series of puzzles and Npc interactions on a journey to save their dying father.

Starbreeze's contribution to the Summer of Arcade...

By Joseph Leray

According to an IGN interiew with Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat, the “Prince of Persia” series is being “paused,” for the time being.

“Brand management is a tricky thing,” he said, explaining that some games can be put on hold and then “suddenly [pop] up because a team is willing to do it.”

“We sometimes iterate on franchises and sometimes we give them time to breathe and time to grow, or time to rest,” he elaborated. “‘Prince of Persia’ is as important as any other franchise for Ubisoft.”

The Montreal-based studio brought “Prince of Persia” back to the forefront of the games industry with the “Sands of Time” trilogy during the mid-2000s, after letting Jordan Mechner’s original games “rest” for almost a decade. “Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands” was released in 2010 in conjunction with a Jake Gyllenhaal-starring film of the same name, though...

Back in 1982, when developing the punishing martial arts classic "Karateka," famed designer Jordan Mechner kept a journal of his working experience. And now he's put all of those thoughts and memories together into an eBook, "The Making of Karateka."

Mechner, whose remake of "Karateka" was released on consoles in November, is dropping the DRM-free eBook in time with the Steam release of the remake developed by Liquid Entertainment. Mechner describes it as "a time-capsule record of that early Apple II era, and a window into the maniacal brain of a teenager obsessed with “breaking in” to making games and/or movies," an interesting but not unexpected direction in the chronicle of a game that had, at the time, surprisingly cinematic aspirations.

Mechner was 18 at the time of the game's release, and would likely have been primed by the tail end of the second generation of martial arts movies made in...

Over on Xbox.com, the first screens from Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner's Karateka have appeared, giving us a look at the cel-shaded art style of the martial arts adventure game/fighter.

Boasting a November 14th release date, soundtrack by Grammy Award winning composer Christopher Tin (Civilization V), and art by Batman: The Animated Series' Jeff Matsuda, Karakteka resurrects the 1984 side-scrolling action game for the 360.

I'm actually pleasantly surprised by the revamped art style, which appears to use flat textures for the main parts of characters' costumes and faces for more detailed elements in things like belts and other adornments. I'm not all that taken with the Ui elements though, which frankly look like Photoshopped placeholders for actual health bars.

Liquid Entertainment is the studio behind the remake with D3Publisher handling the publishing duties.

[Source: Xbox.com]

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Uncle of the Year Built This Steampunk Nes For His Nephew!

Los Angeles – The Writers Guild of America, West (Wgaw) has announced the final results of its 2012 Wgaw Board of Directors election. The following eight members were elected to the Wgaw’s Board of Directors: Chip Johannessen, Katherine Fugate, Michael Oates Palmer, John Aboud, Scott Alexander, David A. Goodman, Marjorie David, Kathy Kiernan. Numerical Results For Successful Candidates Chip Johannessen (870, 10.8%), Katherine Fugate (840, 10.5%), Michael Oates Palmer (790, 9.9%), John Aboud (723, 9.0%), Scott Alexander (684, 8.5%), David A. Goodman (651, 8.1%), Marjorie David (650, 8.1%), Kathy Kiernan (585, 7.3%). The Board members will serve a two-year term, effective immediately. Other Candidates: David Shore (563, 7.0%), Alexander Cary (437, 5.4%), Meg LeFauve (393, 4.9%), Jordan Mechner (273, 3.4%), Barbara Turner (246, 3.1%), Eric Small (153, 1.9%), Terrence Coli (151, 1.9%). A total of 1,320 valid ballots were cast. Each ballot contained up to eight votes. Percentages are based on total number of votes cast. The ballot count was supervised by Robbin Johnson of Pacific Election Services, Inc., an independent firm .

The Writers Guild of America, West on Monday announced the final slate of candidates for its 2012 board of directors election. Fifteen candidates are nominated to run for eight open seats on the board: Meg LeFauve, Marjorie David, David Shore, Terrence Coli, John Aboud, Eric Small, Jordan Mechner, Barbara Turner, Michael Oates Palmer, Scott Alexander, Alexander Cary, David A. Goodman, Katherine Fugate, Kathy Kiernan and Chip Johannessen.  Also read: Wgaw Announces Initial List of Board of Directors Candidates Shore, Goodman, Fugate and Kiernan are incumbents. Previously announced candidates Patrick Sean Smith and Zoanne...

Los Angeles – The Writers Guild of America, West (Wgaw) has announced the final slate of candidates for the 2012 Board of Directors election. There are 15 candidates nominated to run for eight open seats on the Wgaw’s Board of Directors, as follows: Meg LeFauve, Marjorie David, David Shore (incumbent), Terrence Coli, John Aboud, Eric Small, Jordan Mechner, Barbara Turner, Michael Oates Palmer, Scott Alexander, Alexander Cary, David A. Goodman (inc.), Katherine Fugate (inc.), Kathy Kiernan (inc.), Chip Johannessen. (Previously announced Board candidates Patrick Sean Smith and Zoanne Clack withdrew their candidacies.) The Wgaw will host its annual “Candidates Night” town hall forum, where Guild members may meet Bod candidates and get answers to their questions, on Wednesday, September 5, at Wgaw headquarters in Los Angeles. Guild members will receive candidate, non-candidate, and rebuttal statements, if any, with their ballots prior to the election. Candidates may also mail additional campaign materials at their own expense.

The Writers Guild of America, West's Nominating Committee has announced its initial list of candidates for the 2012 Board of Directors election. There are 17 candidates nominated to run for eight open seats on the Wgaw's board of directors: Meg LeFauve, Marjorie David, Patrick Sean Smith, David Shore, Terrence Coli, John Aboud, Eric Small, Jordan Mechner, Zoanne Clack, Barbara Turner, Michael Oates Palmer, Scott Alexander, Alexander Cary, David A. Goodman, Katherine Fugate, Kathy Kiernan, Chip Johannessen. Shore, Goodman, Fugate and Kiernan are incumbents. Also read: 'The Descendants,' 'Midnight in Paris' Are Tops With Writers...

The guild has unveiled a first list of 17 candidates to run for eight open spots on the Wgaw’s Board of Directors. The deadline for submitting nominees by petition is July 23, and the guild will hosts its annual “Candidates Night” town hall forum for candidates September 5 at WGA headquarters in La. Final election ballots will be counted on September 21. Here are the candidates named today: Meg LeFauve, Marjorie David, Patrick Sean Smith, David Shore (inc.), Terrence Coli, John Aboud, Eric Small, Jordan Mechner, Zoanne Clack, Barbara Turner, Michael Oates Palmer, Scott Alexander, Alexander Cary, David A. Goodman (inc.), Katherine Fugate (inc.), Kathy Kiernan (inc.), Chip Johannessen.

The Skinny: The Smithsonian gathered votes for its upcoming Art of Video Games and this week, I detail what I threw my weight behind. Part one is here. Part two is here. Part three is here. Part four is here. The first part of Part Five is here. Today, I finish off by talking about my picks from the last decade or so.

Era 5: Next Generation, continued

GameCube

Adventure Genre

"Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door"

Even though there's a "Zelda" in the category--"The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker," to be specific--i voted for "Paper Mario" because of localization. There's a tricky art to the practice of taking the in-jokes and idioms of a game made in Japanese and making them work in other territories. It's led to unintentionally funny bad Engrish translations before in video games: the All Your Base meme of the early 2000s came from botched localization.

Over 19,000 people attended this year's Game Developer's Conference to soak their minds in the rich, brainy stew alongside other game-loving, game-making individuals. Among those people were Toru Iwatani, Jordan Mechner and John Romero.

If you don't know who they are, then maybe the names of their creations-"Pac-Man," "Prince of Persia" and "Doom"-will ring a few bells. Yeah, I thought so. All these men and a few more hallowed game designers took part in Gdc 2011's Classic Game Post-Mortems, in celebration of the 25th Edition of the conference. I've already talked about how riveting and inspirational Eric Chahi's talk was and now Gdc made the other presentation in the series available to watch for free. Just go to the Gdc Vault website and click on Gdc 2011. Once there, you'll find

One thing that you'll note about the talks and the designers who give them is that they were...

One of our favorite collective pastimes as gamers is looking back on all of the great stuff we played in the before time, when "joystick" referred to the thing sticking out of the machine you shoved your quarters into. This year's Game Developer's Conference, which goes down in San Francisco between February 28 and March 4, will pay particular attention to that facet of our shared experience with 11 developer-hosted "classic" postmortems.

The idea is to put the developer of each of the 11 featured titles onto a stage and have him -- they're all dudes -- take questions on their work from the gathered attendees. It's a pretty all star lineup that the Gdc planners have put together, including several of the show's own past (and present) Lifetime Achievement Award winners. For those of us who won't be able to make it to San Francisco, the 11 lectures will be filmed and made available...

What if Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, Quentin Tarantino, Brad Bird and Sofia Coppola converged on a convention center to lecture on their masterpieces? That will probably never happen, but the video game equivalent will. At this year's Game Developers Conference, the creators of "Pac-Man", "Prince of Persia", "Doom" and more will deliver postmortems to their fans and friends, colleagues and co-workers. Here's a complete list of the speakers:

Jordan Mechner, "Prince of Persia"

Toru Iwatani, "Pac-Man'

David Braben, "Elite"

Erich Chahi, "AnotherWorld"/"Out of This World'

Mark Cerny, "Marble Madness"

John Romero, "Doom'

David Crane, "Pitfall!"

Jason Kapalka, "Bejeweled"

Peter Molyneux, "Populous"

Will Wright, "Raid on Bungeling Bay"

Ron Gilbert, "Maniac Mansion"

The conference runs from February 28th to March 4th, 2011 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California. You can register to attend -- there's a fee -- or you can watch...

Jordan Mechner is a well-known name these days thanks to the success of his "Prince of Persia" series. Serious old-school PC gamers remember him for more than just spinning a story about a prince's adventures through spikes and pressure plates however. Many would argue that the 1997 release "The Last Express" is Mechner's greatest work, an adventure game that is notable for unfolding in accelerated real-time. Its been tough to find in recent years, but no longer! And you've got digital distributor DotEmu to thank for it.

"The Last Express" is downloadable now for the low price of $9.99. The game supports Windows Xp, Vista and 7, 32-bit and 64-bit editions alike, and it comes with five different language options (English, French, German, Italian and Spanish). It's also a digital Collector's Edition package, which means you also get the game's soundtrack, some kind of making-of and a walkthrough. Skip the walkthrough though-- best...

Jordan Mechner’s beloved adventure game The Last Express is now available from DotEmu. For a mere $9.99, you get a digital download of the game compatible with modern computers (Xp-Win7, 32 & 64-bit), the soundtrack, a making-of and a walkthrough. Physical copies of the game are somewhat easy to find online, but they’ll set you back $20-30 bucks. Why not purchase the cheaper version and use the money you save for aspirin to combat the headache you'll get from trying to solve some of the game’s puzzles?

Mechner, best known for creating the Prince of Persia series, told an intriguing tale in The Last Express. The story revolves around a doctor named Robert Cath (aka you) summoned to meet an old friend on the Orient Express three days prior to the start of World War 1. After boarding the train, you find yourself in a web of “betrayal, romance and political conspiracy.

Sneak Peek the cover to Aspen Comics "Fathom: Primer" #1, available February 2011, written by Michael Turner and Scott Lobdell, with art by Turner, Koi Turnbull and Al Garza :

"...There are two worlds we know, the one above and the one below... In 1998, superstar artist Michael Turner created a world of sheer wonder and awe beneath the surface of the ocean. Now, more than 12 years later and prior to the release of 'Fathom: Volume 4', you can relive the amazing journey of 'Aspen Matthews' and her discovery of life beneath the waves in this introductory issue. Compiling together the first three volumes of Turner's series, new 'Fathom' writer Scott Lobdell, takes you on a journey back through all the important benchmarks in the Fathom universe..."

Actress Megan Fox is still attached to star and co-produce a "Fathom" feature film, adapting the comics from a screenplay by Jordan Mechner.

We've heard about a few possible projects for Paul Verhoeven over the past couple years. Last seen directing the very good Black Book, he's got a film called The Surrogate on his plate, along with The Hidden Force and possibly an adaptation of a Jordan Mechner video game. Add one more to the pile, as the director has signed on to Eternal, which could put him back in erotic thriller territory, albeit with a twist. Deadline says that Eternal is "Fatal Attraction -- with a succubus temptress." Richard D'Ovidio will rewrite the existing draft by David Loughery. Production is penciled in for next summer, so this could be Mr. Verhoeven's next film. More plot: A married recovering alcoholic helps a woman threatening to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. They end up in bed, and in a torrid sexual affair. When he gets home, he’s confronted by his wife and a private investigator,...

Maybe you didn't like the "Prince of Persia" movie. I did. Maybe you didn't even go to see it. Obviously, I did that, too. But, even if you didn't like it, anyone curious to see how games make their way to movies should check out the script for this summer's video game adaptation. (Incidentally, the DVD release of the Mike Newell film debuted at the number one spot two weeks ago.)

Said script was written by Jordan Mechner, the man who created the first "Prince of Persia" game more than twenty years ago in college. Mechner's gone on to guide his creation through a series of new games and graphic novels and one of the things I've always loved about the "PoP" concept was how it always kept its literary aspiration and inspirations in sight, no matter where it went.

Though the script is an interesting glimpse in Mechner's process,...

Chicago – Jerry Bruckheimer has reached a point in his career where he feels capable of making a film out of anything. And not just a film, but a multimillion dollar franchise offering the mega-producer’s typically uninspired blend of sound and fury. He’s already worked wonders with an old theme park ride and an outdated action figure, so why not base his next popcorn epic on a forgotten video game from 1989?

But unlike the initial installments for “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Transformers,” which were diverting and enjoyable in proudly dumb sort of way, “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” is deadly dull right off the bat. The plot is aggravatingly abridged and ridiculously convoluted for its first half, and then oversimplified and obvious in its second. Though “Persia” is allegedly directed by Mike Newell, the prolific filmmaker who injected life into projects as diverse as “Four Weddings and a Funeral...

Jake Gyllenhaal is a ''terrific prince''. Jordan Mechner - who worked as a writer on 'Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time' featuring Jake as Prince Dastan - confesses the hunky actor was perfect for the role because he has ''the right spirit''. He said: ''I think the director Mike Newell put together a fantastic cast. ''Jake Gyllenhaal makes a terrific prince. He is a very good actor but he also has the right spirit - besides being a warrior and in the best shape of his life, he has got humanity that is really important.'' However, Newell confesses he had ..

The directing-writing duo behind this upcoming DVD/Blu-ray release take us behind the scenes of their video game adaptation

On September 14th, Walt Disney Pictures epic adventure Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time will finally arrive on DVD and Blu-ray. To celebrate this upcoming release, we recently caught up with the film's director Mike Newell, as well as the creator of the original video game upon which the story is based and screenplay contributor Jordan Mechner, to find out more about the making of this thrilling new addition to the Disney legacy. Here is our conversation:

Why did you film in Morocco at a time of the year that everyone advised against going there?

Mike Newell: I'm afraid that is simply how the movies work. If you are going to do a film about the South Pole, the chances are that you will film it in Hawaii! Whatever is most difficult,...

Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia has been an acclaimed video game and he is one of the fortunate creators to be intimately involved in the adaptation from game to feature film. Mechner managed to write the screen adaptation, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton. The Disney feature was released to middling reviews and so-so box office in May and comes to home video tomorrow. Disney provided us with this conversation.

Question: What were your feelings when you finally saw the film?

Jordan Mechner: Firstly, the original Prince of Persia was a character 40 pixels high on the Apple II screen, running and jumping. The technology at the time was quite primitive, I think in my mind I imagined a much grander spectacle, and to see Jake [Gyllenhaal] in the best shape of his life running around the rooftops of Morocco and doing parkour and all this stuff was more than I could imagine.

© Disney

To celebrate the release of Disney’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, we are giving away five copies of the Disney Triple Play pack (Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Copy) to you, our lovely readers!

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is available on Disney Blu-ray, DVD and Triple Play edition that includes a digital copy from 13th September and you can preorder your copy here.

Synopsis: From the team that brought the “Pirates Of The Caribbean” trilogy to the big screen, Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films present Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time, an epic action-adventure set in the mystical lands of Persia. A rogue prince (Jake Gyllenhaal) reluctantly joins forces with a mysterious princess (Gemma Arterton) and together, they battle dark forces to safeguard an ancient dagger capable of releasing the Sands of Time – a gift from the Gods that can reverse...

Megan Fox, star of the upcoming comic book adaptation, "Jonah Hex" (opens June 18th), has been heard talking about another comic book property, "Fathom."

It's based on the Aspen Comics series created by the late Michael Turner and is being developed by Fox Atomic. Megan Fox is still signed up to star as Aspen Matthews and she will also produce the film. English actor Matthew Tate will play Chance Calloway and Jordan Mechner is finalizing the script.

Fox confirmed to MTV News that "Fathom" is still in the works and will get made come hell or high water.

"That's going to happen even if I have to step away from it and give it to someone else," she told MTV. "That movie will happen, just because I love it and it needs to happen."

What exactly does this statement mean? Is Fox leaving the "Fathom" production? Not really, on the contrary,...

Its been a long, long time since we have heard anything about this project. It was March 2009 when Fox was linked to Fathom as the film’s star and she was also planning to produce for Fox Atomic. The late creator Michael Turner is to be credited as the film’s Executive Producer

Megan Fox has now recently confirmed with MTV News that Fathom is in fact still in the works and will definitely get made, even in the event that someone else has to take over the lead role of Aspen Matthews, the comic book’s main character.

“They’re still working on the script and getting that together,” Fox said. “That’s in the early fetal pre-production stages.”

Screenwriter and video game creator Jordan Mechner has been writing the script or was linked to the script writing duties in the march ‘09 report.

Fathom is a comic book created...

There's a lot of history behind the new film Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. If, that is, you think that 20-plus years of video gaming counts as "history" -- but heck, if you're only 20 years old yourself, video games are probably a lot more historically significant to you than the events in any textbook. And if you want to taste a bit of that history for just 99 cents, Apple has, as they say, an app for that -- the folks over at iPhone Help reviewed the original Prince of Persia game for the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, available through the iTunes store.

The first Prince of Persia saw life in 1989 as a game for the Apple II, and was pretty much state-of-the-art at the time. Game developer Jordan Mechner videotaped his younger brother and used the rotoscoping technique to create more realistic character movement than was seen...

Genre: Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Video Game Adaptation

Director: Mike Newell

Writer: Boaz Yakin, Doug Miro, Carlo Bernard (screenplay); Jordan Mechner (video game series)

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Sir Ben Kingsley, Alfred Molina, Steve Toussaint, Toby Kebbell and Richard Coyle

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action

Summary: Based on the video game, which follows an adventurous prince who teams up with a rival princess to stop an angry ruler from unleashing a sandstorm that could destroy the world.

Run Time: 116 minutes

View the Trailer Here

If you were holding your breath for this film because it is an adaptation of a video game, you can breathe a sigh of relief. I am happy to say that Prince of Persia beats the odds and the horrible track record that video game-to-film adaptations have. Here’s why:

It’s a really fun ride! Much like Pirates of the...

People about to watch Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time will have two reasons to walk into the theatre with trepidation. Some may ask why the titular Prince doesn’t look very Persian; those who have played the Prince of Persia video games will wonder whether this is another disastrous game-to-film adaptation that will discredit both media forms. These worries can mostly be put to rest. Whatever keeps the film, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Pushing Tin) from being a masterpiece has very little to do with its video game origins.

The Sands of Time’s plot keeps a surprising amount of the eponymous 2003 game’s plot. Credit for that can probably go to Jordan Mechner, who created the first Prince of Persia game back in 1989 and penned the original screenplay for the film. Prince Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a...

Powerful opening launches in a handful of key overseas markets on the Memorial Day weekend propelled Disney's "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" to the No. 1 spot on the foreign theatrical circuit.

According to updated weekend figures Monday from the distributor, the swords-and-sandals-style spectacular based on Jordan Mechner's video game franchise drew $61.7 million -- $2.7 million more than previously estimated -- from 9.712 screens in 48 territories for an early international cume of $97.7 million through Monday.

Taking second place on the weekend was Warner Bros./New Line's "Sex and the City 2," which opened on the foreign circuit with $28 million drawn from 3,705 screens in 17 markets. Overseas gross total is $31.8 million through Monday.

In "Prince of Persia's" second round on the foreign circuit -- it just opened to $30.2 million domestically, or $37.8 million when taking into account the four-day holiday weekend -- the Jerry Bruckheimer production finished No. 1 in at least 40 of...

Chicago – Historically, video game adaptations are recipes for disaster when translated into film. While “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” with Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton has a blockbuster opportunity to buck the decades-old trend, we’re just subjected to more of the same soul-deadening time drain.

Rating: 2.0/5.0

“Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” will go down in history akin to other video-game-to-film failures including “Resident Evil: Extinction,” “Max Payne,” “Postal,” “BloodRayne,” “Doom,” “Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life,” “House of the Dead,” “Mortal Kombat,” “Street Fighter” and “Double Dragon”. The film only succeeds in its mindless entertainment and can be considered excellent background noise while you’re making out with someone at home.

The special effects are cheesy, the costuming feels forced, you can practically see the actual sets in various scenes and ultimately the film’s 116 minutes are about 110 minutes too long. Sure, the...

May 29, 2010:Prince Of Persia- Cool Entertainer For Hot Summer

Rating: 2.5 out of 5*

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton and Ben Kingsley

Director: Mike Newell

Based on the video game series created by Jordan Mechner, "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" begins with Dastan (William Foster) as an orphaned boy being rescued in the marketplace by King Sharaman (Ronald Pickup).

The king adopts him and he is raised as a prince (Jake Gyllenhaal) along with the king’s real sons, Tus (Richard Coyle) and Garsiv (Toby Kebbell). Nizam (Ben Kingsley), the kings’.

Movies and video games. Video games and movies. Over the last half-decade, the two have linked to each other in an awkward conceptual waltz, like something out of a junior high school mixer. As game developers and film studios twirl each other around, dreams about attaining cinema's Aesthetic Legitimacy fill the head of the former. Aesthetic Legitimacy was granted to movies in some shadowy rite long ago and, ever since, no one ever questions whether celluloid creations are art anymore.

Often trumpeted as the future of storytelling, the video game medium pines away for and ofttimes thinks it deserves Aesthetic Legitimacy. Meanwhile, movie producers just want to rub up against video games' Earning Potential. Feature films have found themselves beset by diminishing box-office returns and look longingly at the blockbuster numbers that games like "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" and "Grand Theft Auto IV" have racked up.

Both mediums rely...

With "Prince of Persia" hitting theaters this week, the latest installment of Weekend Reading looks at three books written by or inspired by the work of "Prince of Persia" creator Jordan Mechner.

A best-selling video game franchise and now a live-action film, "Prince of Persia" has had a long life since Mechner created the original game in 1989. Along with various sequels on the gaming side, there have also been two "Prince of Persia" graphic novels published, as well as an original story, "Solomon's Thieves," written by Mechner.

Let's take at all of 'em, shall we?

"Prince Of Persia" by Jordan Mechner (creator), A.B. Sina (w), LeUyen Pham & Alex Puvilland (a) - First Second: Published in 2008, the original "Prince of Persia" graphic novel has little to do with the existing game franchises or the live-action film. The story follows the adventures of two princes in the 9th and 13th centuries...

Disney’s “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time”, based on the popular and long-running action-adventure videogame created by Jordan Mechner, is a mega production with mega sets, Hollywood sheen out the wazoo, great actors slumming it for a paycheck, and a script that services the action set pieces and not the other way around. In short, it’s everything it’s supposed to be: a ready-made Disney franchise similar to the studio’s “Pirates of the Caribbean”. As such, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that “Persia” easily qualifies as solid popcorn entertainment for the masses. And that, for better or worse, is probably its only goal this summer. Jake Gyllenhaal steps out of his comfort zone in his first action-adventure role, playing Dastan, a street urchin who gets promoted to son of the Persian King because, well, the King likes his spunk. Dastan grows up with two older brothers,...

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Directed by: Mike Newell Written by: Boaz Yakin, Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard (screenplay), Jordan Mechner (story) Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley, Alfred Molina By now it has become an unwritten rule in Hollywood that any movie based on a video game is starting development with the odds stacked against it. Many of them end up making money, but for a variety of reasons, game adaptations are still batting a big fat zero on the big screen in terms of delivering worthwhile entertainment. From the very start, however, there was a sense that a Prince of Persia movie could be something different. Acquired by Disney and steered by producer Jerry Bruckheimer, this was being touted as the next blockbuster action/adventure franchise to follow in the footsteps of The Pirates of the Caribbean series. With a cool exotic setting, a rich back story,...

Jake Gyllenhaal, swashbuckler

Jake Gyllenhaal in "Prince of Persia"

Photo: Walt Disney

Okay, Jake Gyllenhaal's sudden, suntanned muscularity suggests Malibu Beach more than it does ancient Persia; and one wonders if ancient Persians said things like "Watch your back" and "I need a drink." Still, "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" seems (I'm guessing) like a pretty great Arabian-adventure movie for kids. It's made in the classic Disney style: no sex, no swearing, and lots of action with very little blood. So if you know a kid — of the male persuasion, ideally — you might want to take him to see it. You might also want to wait at a bar while he does so.

The movie is based on a long-evolving video game created by Jordan Mechner, who came up with the story for the film, too. It's the sort of story whose hazy details could only be...

Jake Gyllenhaal, swashbuckler

Jake Gyllenhaal in "Prince of Persia"

Photo: Walt Disney

Okay, Jake Gyllenhaal's sudden, suntanned muscularity suggests Malibu Beach more than it does ancient Persia; and one wonders if ancient Persians said things like "Watch your back" and "I need a drink." Still, "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" seems (I'm guessing) like a pretty great Arabian-adventure movie for kids. It's made in the classic Disney style: no sex, no swearing, and lots of action with very little blood. So if you know a kid — of the male persuasion, ideally — you might want to take him to see it. You might also want to wait at a bar while he does so.

The movie is based on a long-evolving video game created by Jordan Mechner, who came up with the story for the film, too. It's the sort of story whose hazy details could only be...