Michael Bay Eyeing 'Prince of Persia' As Next Project

What, you were expecting a low-budget character study? Disney is hoping that right after wrapping Transformers, Michael Bay will direct Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, an adaptation of the extremely popular video game. Jerry Bruckheimer is producing, and the film is planning for a Summer 2009 release. The Bay/Bruckheimer collaboration has so far given us Bad Boys and Bad Boys II, Armageddon, the incredibly awesome The Rock, and the incredibly anti-awesome Pearl Harbor. Of this new project, Jordan Mechner, the game's creator, says "Rather than do a straight beat-for-beat adaptation of the new video game, we're taking some cool elements from the game and using them to craft a new story, much as Pirates (of the Caribbean) did with the theme park ride."

The game is part of a trilogy -- "Sands of Time" was followed by "Warrior Within" and "The Two Thrones." Naturally, Bruckheimer is hoping to make Persia into a franchise, a la Pirates. You can head over to IESB to see some concept art for the film. Now, I haven't played "Prince of Persia." In fact I haven't played a video game since the original Nintendo. But apparently "Persia" is a third-person action-adventure game that 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." That sounds fine I suppose, but when am I going to get Paperboy: The Movie? Tetris: Rock Out With Your Blocks Out?