The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time movie will be shot in Morocco, as reported on Wednesday by Morocco’s Dune Films company.

The company has also revealed that scouting and casting begins on March 17.

Previous reports about the release date for the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time movie stated that the anticipated video game to movie adaptation was to be released in July 10, 2009.

With the resolution of the writer’s strike, Disney has revised the release dates of many of its upcoming movies for 2009, including the Prince of Persia movie.

The new release date is set to be June 16, 2009.

More from Variety.

Collider reports that it has a breakdown of Hollywood movies that are due to start filming in the near future, including new synopses.

Included in this list is the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time movie. As far as I can see, the storyline is very similar to that of the video game.

PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME
Scheduled Start Date - July 2008
Producer: Jerry Bruckheimer - John August - Mike Stenson - Chad Oman
Director: Mike Newell
Writer: Jeffrey Nachmanoff

Passing through India en route to Azad, King Sharaman and his son, the Prince of Persia, defeat the powerful Maharajah of India with the promise of honor and glory. After looting the city and capturing a giant hourglass full of sand, a mysterious dagger, and the Maharajah’s daughter Farah along with other treasures, they continue to Azad. A dying Vizier, who had betrayed the Maharajah and aided King Sharaman in return for a share of the spoils, demands to have the dagger, as he was promised his choice of the Maharajah’s treasures. But Sharaman refuses to take the dagger from his son, who captured it first. So the Vizier, who wishes to harness the power of the sands in the hourglass for himself, making him an immortal god and giving him control over time itself, tricks the Prince into opening the hourglass. When the Prince uses the dagger to unleash the Sands of Time from the hourglass, the Sands destroy the kingdom and turn all living beings into hideous sand creatures. Only the Prince, the Vizier, and Princess Farah, the kidnapped daughter of the Maharajah, remain unchanged due to their possessions; the Prince’s dagger, the Vizier’s staff, and Farah’s medallion.

Kotaku makes a pretty funny version of this synopsis based on the fact Jerry Bruckheimer, who likes to “blow stuff up” is one of the producers. It’s worth a read for the laughs.

Ubisoft confirmed in their latest financial report on third quarter sales that there will be another installment in the Prince of Persia franchise. This will make it the 4th game in the series.

Prince of Persia 4 is set for release in fiscal year 2008-2009, which begins on April 1, 2008. The report gave no details as to which consoles or platforms the game will be developed for and details about the story or plot.

It’s not surprising that another Prince of Persia game is being made. After all, it would go nicely with the upcoming Prince of Persia movie.

Looks like the rumor of a fourth Prince of Persia game reported back in November might turn out to be true after all.

While on the last round of press for Mike Newall’s lastest film, Love in the Time of Cholera, the newly appointed Prince of Persia director drops some hints at what the video game movie might be light.

“It’s not a video game movie, It’s a great story. If you had read the script, you would know that it wasn’t a video game. It’s very exciting and it’s immensely romantic and it’s like Lost Horizon. It takes you to somewhere you’ve never been.”

“There’s so much that will happen with that story because it’s 1300 years ago. This girl who was actually a kind of priest… I’m sorry, I’ve been on it five days. I’m full of f***ing ideas. It’ll be terrific.”

Read the full article here.

Seems like Michael Bay may not be directing the Prince of Persia movie after all. The new rumor on the block is that the director’s job has been handed to Mike Newall.

It’s been reported that the PoP movie producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, has offered Newall the directing gig and that Newall has already had meetings with studio executives to discuss the project.

Possible explanations for the deviation from Michael Bay as the director is conflicting interests, as Michael Bay is set to direct the sequel to the Transformer movie.

Mike Newall’s most recently famous movie was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in 2005. Other movies he has under his belt include Mona Lise Smile, Donnie Brasco and Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Source: Variety

A rumor starting from an unknown blog, “Surfer Girl Reviews Star Wars” claims that there is a fourth Prince of Persia game in the making at Ubisoft.

The release date is speculated to be late 2008 and the blog contains two screenshots in which there appears to be a ghostly female character.

According to the blogger, the game, which is rumored to be a prequel to the trilogy and a mash up of PoP: Sands of Time, Ico and Zelda, will be created for the Xbox 360, Wii, PC, and PlayStation 3.

Gamespot news reported that on speaking with an Ubisoft rep that “Ubisoft does not comment on rumors.” (Ubisoft rep. from Gamespot news)

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, the first installment of the Prince of Persia trilogy, is now free to play. This is being made possible as the game is supported by advertising.

To play Sands of Time for free, you’ll need to live in the United States of America and have an Ubi account.

To sign up for an Ubi account, you’ll need to visit the Ubisoft web site.

Download the game from Gamershell.

An in-depth interview with Jordan Mechner, the creator of Prince of Persia, reveals that the Prince of Persia is soon to be making an appearance in a graphic novel. (more…)

An interesting article by Variety about how early movies are being planned shed some light on the release date of the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time movie. (more…)