Prince of Persia Movie and Casting Fail?
November 3, 2009 by Amy Tucker
Filed under Gaming
This morning, as I was drinking my coffee, the trailer for the Prince of Persia movie came on.
The first thing I thought was, “Jake Gyllenhaal? Really?!”
Now, don’t get me wrong. I like Jake Gyllenhaal. I think I’d like to hang-out with him and have an adult beverage. I enjoy his acting and have liked several of his movies.
But I just didn’t see Gyllenhaal in this role.
Granted, they’ve changed his look a bit to fit the role with his darker skin and longer hair. Plus, it looks like he’s packed on quite a few pounds of muscle and he’s very nice to look at. And now as I’m writing this, I’m not sure who I would rather see in the role. For some reason, I just can’t get my head around Donnie Darko as the Prince.
Anyway, I’ve included the trailer below in case you haven’t seen it and wonder, who would you have cast? Do you think Jake Gyllenhaal will serve the role well or do you think this is an epic casting fail?
I like Gyllenhaal as an actor and strive not to typecast people myself. I think it’s a good fit cause he is so unlikely. It’s like the studio is hedging its bets.
Could have gone with a complete nobody and risk the audience’s acceptance of the actor in that role, could have gone with someone with lots of E-talk coverage and “look at my chest” cachet, but that might have hurt in the long run too.
Take someone you know can act and mold them to fit the role as you’ve envisioned it and you might be on to something.
Of course you are still making a movie based on a video game so it sucks by default right? I’m looking forward to the scene where our hero gets stuck in a huge unlikely room full of hand holds and platforms and it takes him 20 minutes of reel time to blunder his way out.
Good points all around.
But I gotta say the last paragraph made me spit out my coffee. Which was hot. But at least I got a good laugh. :)
Just when you thought it was safe to go outside…they cast the whitest dude on the planet to play a Persian Prince. Hollywood has their head so far up their … they can’t see straight. I hope they go bankrupt with this peice of crap. There are so many awesome amazing mediteranean actors they could have taken a chance on with this uh…. Epic. Its such a slap in the face to all the actors of color that could have easily played this character. jake g. are you serious? Ughghhghgh. Doesn’t he get enough roles? I would have love to see the kid from Slum Dog Millionare all beefed up to play the part.
But then I realized its a Jerry Bruckheimer- Michael Bay super model extra anglo extravaganza. Meaning their will be epic blowups, lots of bad one liners and white people and really great lighting with fans or propellers in the background ( check all of MB’s films) Cheese fromage cheese. I thought we stopped doing blackface years ago. I guess not.
The bible epics are back…..quick get out the self tanner!
Pathetic.
S-