Jake Gyllenhaal has been tapped to take the lead role in the upcoming Disney movie Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
Despite originally reporting the role had gone to Black Hawk Down star Orlando Bloom, the Hollywood Reporter now says the prince will be played by Gyllenhaal. Starring as a sixth-century Persian prince named Dastan, Gyllenhaal will team up with Tamina, played by Gemma Arterton, a “feisty and exotic princess” who will help him prevent the Sands of Time from falling into the hands of an evil nobleman with dastardly plans to rule the world.
Jerry Bruckheimer, who is producing the movie, described Gyllenhaal as “charismatic” and said he had high hopes for Arterton. “We’ve been fairly fortunate with some of our leading ladies,” he said. “Some of them have gone on to become major movie stars, going back to Nicole Kidman in a movie I did a long time ago called Days of Thunder to Keira Knightley out of [Pirates of the Caribbean].”
Bruckheimer would not comment on the movie’s budget, although he did say, “It’s not one of our smaller productions.” Filming is set to begin in July in England and Morocco, with release currently slated for summer 2009.
