“Prince of Persia” trailer debuts

Here it is, your first chance to see Jake Gyllenhaal with long hair and an English accent.

Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer have released the full theatrical trailer for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time due out on May 28, 2010. The movie is based on the popular video game series and the story follows the hero Dastan as he tries to make up for accidentally unleashing the Sands of Time which ends up turning this medieval Persian kingdom into a ghost town and he’ll do so with the help of  a lovely princess (Gemma Arterton of “Quantum of Solace”) and the Dagger of Time, which allows him to manipulate time somewhat … yea, you get it. Fantasy shit.

The trailer looks visually outstanding. The CGI appears top-notch and the action sequences (directed by Harry Potter 4‘s Mike Newell) look exciting to say the least.

I think the most interesting part, which I didn’t know, was that Disney and Bruckheimer are actually trying to make this their “Pirates” replacement. Disney rarely just slaps its name on anything action-oriented and that must mean they’re trying to bring the “Pirates” audience back to theaters — and during the beginning of summer no less. There’s even some banter attempted between Jake and Gemma, which falls flat in the trailer.

Let’s be real though. If your’e going to see Prince of Persia next year expecting the same witty adventure experience you got out of the “Pirates” movies, then you deserve to be set up for disappointment. For one thing, there’s no Johnny Depp here and I’m not even sure Gyllenhaal has done comedy ever. I’m sure Disney knows exactly what it’s doing, however. They’re thinking “who cares if we deceive the public into thinking this will be like “Pirates,” we’ll make more money and just deal with the potentially negative word of mouth from the dumb people who see it thinking it will be.” It’s smart.

Still, the trailer looks promising for action/adventure fans and it might make for some quality escapism a couple of weeks after Iron Man 2 hits theaters.

View the Prince of Persia trailer at IGN Video here