Prince of Persia sequel and movie in the works

Prince of Persia fans got a double whammy of good news today. First, at the D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas, Ubisoft Vice President of Marketing Tony Kee confirmed that a sequel to Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is in the works. (A sequel had been mentioned in passing at a recent conference call.) While he gave little in the way of information about the game, he did divulge its tentative release date, which is Christmas of 2004.

The second bit of news came out of Hollywood, where legendary producer Jerry Bruckheimer has bought the film rights to The Sands of Time. The deal came after an article in Variety reported that negotiations were under way.

Speaking to GameSpot at D.I.C.E., Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner confirmed that the deal has been finalized and that he will write the script. "To make a movie from the game is coming full circle. I wrote the script of the game to be a great game experience," said Mechner. "Now I leave that behind and will write a script for a great movie."

Speaking to Variety earlier, Mechner gave a hint as to what a Prince of Persia film would look like. "Rather than do a straight adaptation, 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," said Mechner.

The Bruckheimer deal is just the latest in a flurry of game-film-rights acquisitions, and it comes just one day after Soul Calibur was optioned by American Pie producer Warren Zide.