Ben Kingsley Talks Prince of Persia Movie

Ben Kingsley sat down with Empire to talk about the upcoming Prince of Persia game which although he had heard of knows very little about. Or at least did before he took on the role. They have spent some time discussing the game which I suppose indicates they are going to try and stay somewhat true to it;

“It’s really quite beautiful how it’s building up with all our actors, with the writers sitting there, with the director sitting there, it’s really holding up very well. Most of my stuff is with Jake Gyllenhaal, who plays the Prince (Dastan), and I’m a father figure who lets him down very, very badly in the film. I’m the villain actually. It’s interesting because his own father dies early in the film and I take over and I’m completely manipulative.”

The synopsis goes like this; 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.