In my GDC China keynote about Prince of Persia’s 20-year journey from game to film, I showed a 2-minute trailer I made six years ago to pitch the movie to Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney execs. I’m posting it here for those who are interested.
Why did I cut a new trailer, instead of using one of the existing game trailers Ubisoft had already produced to market the Sands of Time game? Because the game marketing trailers were very specific about certain story points that weren’t in the movie (freeze, fast-forward, sand monsters, visions). Co-producer John August and I didn’t want to confuse the execs by showing them a different story from the one we were pitching.
It took me a week to cut on Final Cut Express, in late 2003. Assembling a trailer from existing PS2 game footage was an editing challenge, because key scenes, locations and characters from the movie didn’t exist. So rather than attempt to explicitly tell the story of the movie in the trailer, I set out to convey the kind of movie it would be. (Don’t worry, there are no spoilers — the trailer reveals nothing about the plot of the movie beyond what’s in the game.)
The sound mix is rough — I didn’t have the proper elements or the time to do a professional-quality mix — but it served its purpose of selling the pitch. Hope you enjoy it.
Prince of Persia movie pitch trailer (2003) from jordan mechner on Vimeo.
Comments (16) | Trackbacks (14)
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Wow. That is actually really good. You had me hooked. Did it get you the movie deal?
Looks Awesome! Waiting for the movie ^^
I always forget how powerful the music is.
WOW, I can’t wait, looks and feels exciting… I aways enjoyed the game. back when it came out,I was hooked! Now I will be again… what fun! Go Jordan, keep the fun coming!
wow, really, i missed that music. i haven’t played sands of time in a while, i just had a nostalgic moment. really good pitch trailer, i hope one day, when i pitch my future game(s) i can have such strong music as sands of time did. please, if it’s not too late or haven’t done it already, put music from the game into the movie, it’s freaking great. hope to see the official movie trailer soon =]
This trailer just reminds me how much I love the game.
Nicely done trailer Jordan, Ubisoft could have even used this same trailer for the game if they wanted to. Watching it just makes me want to go out and play SoT again.
on a side note –
I happen to have read the movie’s script, and interestingly, after reading all of Jordan’s and John August’s (on his blog) comments on what the pitch and trailer were supposed to convey, I still don’t get the feel of the movie’s story at all, still reminds me completely of the game.
PRINCE OF PERSIA IS MY FAVORTE .PLEAS PLACE PLACES YOU CAN PURHASE IT IERIA
For me, this game-based trailer is better and much more exciting than the film trailer – partly because (weirdly) it feels much more real and believable. Much more like the real world, and so much more seductive.
I must find my CD to play this game again.. thx
Hi, very good web site. Thanks.
zachot blyat’ ??????????)))))))
Great, thank you.
Honestly I’m a lil disapointed in the film with out even watching it. Its not politically correct. There isn’t one single person on the cast that is Persian or has persian decent. If any one knows there history, they know that persia today is now Saudi arabia. I don’t see not one arab actor in the whole film.
Persia – Iran -> technically caucasian = no big deal.
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