May 20, 2008 - Orlando Bloom's apparently not going to be a prince. Instead, Jake Gyllenhaal - an actor who's often mentioned as having the potential to play a superhero (remember the rumor he was going to fill in for Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man 3?) - will star in the Walt Disney Pictures/Jerry Bruckheimer big-budget action movie Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) is directing the film, which is based on a popular video game franchise.

Prince of Persia video game creator Jordan Mechner contributed to the film's screenplay.

Gemma Arterton will co-star with Gyllenhaal in what's sure to be the start of another Disney film franchise. Gyllenhaal will play a 6th century Persian prince named Dastan who teams up with Arterton's character, Tamina, to stop a bad guy from getting his hands on the Sands of Time.

Gyllenhaal recently completed work on Jim Sheridan's Brothers and is currently filming Nailed for David O Russell. Arterton will next be seen in Quantum of Solace, the next James Bond movie, as well as Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla.

Director Mike Newell wants audiences to see Prince of Persia as more than a 'video game movie.' “It's a great story,” explained Newell while doing press for Love in the Time of Cholera. “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. It's like Lost Horizons. It takes you to somewhere you've never been.”