Video game to silver screen, ‘Sex and the City’ sequel,  ‘Jew-Tang clan’ returns

Video game to silver screen

Mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer had mega-hits with his “Pirates of the Caribbean” films, which were inspired by a Disneyland ride, and now he’s back with a film loosely based on a classic video game. “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” opens Friday, May 28.

The Prince of Persia video game, which was released in 1989, featured groundbreaking fluid animation and an exciting storyline. A bestseller, it was followed by many sequels. Creator Jordan Mechner, now 44, also writes and directs documentary films on serious subjects.

His father, Francis Mechner, 79, is a quite famous educational-business psychologist who was born in Austria. Francis fled to France in 1938 when the Nazis took over his homeland. He then went to Cuba in 1941, and finally to the United States in 1944. Trained also as a painter and concert pianist, he wrote the scores for his son’s first videos.

The film adaptation (based on a story by Jordan Mechner and Boaz Yakin) is set in Persia in the sixth century, just before the Islamic conquest. Jake Gyllenhaal, 29, stars as a rogue prince who joins forces with a mysterious princess. Together they battle dark forces to safeguard an ancient dagger that can release the “sands of time” and allow its possessor to reverse time and rule the world.

‘Sex and the City’ sequel

“Sex and the City 2” opened Thursday, May 27. It encapsulates, in a 90-minute flick, a TV season’s worth of plot twists: Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker, 45) and Mr. Big (Chris Noth) are having some problems with their two-year-old marriage. Carrie realizes some sparkle has been lost when she catches Big flirting with a sultry Spanish woman (Penelope Cruz).

Meanwhile, Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) seems to be doing well, but Charlotte (Kristen Davis) admits mothering two young kids is tough. The supporting cast includes Evan Handler as Harry, the Jewish lawyer husband of Jew-by-choice Charlotte, and Willie Garson, a straight Jewish actor who plays Stanford Blatch, Carrie’s gay friend.

Parker, the mother of three young children, recently told Heat magazine: “I don’t feel like [the glamorous and childless] Carrie — my life is so different, my choices are different. But I love her. I love playing her and everything about her — the good, the flawed, the mistakes, the bad choices.”

The magazine also asked Parker about her beauty regimen, and she said: “I don’t have one. I feel old and tired! I have children I run around after. I try to walk as much as possible, and other than that I buy every cream possible.”

‘Jew-Tang clan’ returns

The 2008 hit comedy “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” featured English comedian Russell Brand as the delightfully quirky Aldous Snow, a British rock star who woos away the girlfriend of the film’s hero, played by Jason Segel (who also wrote the film).

Most of the cast of “Sarah Marshall” was Jewish, which wasn’t surprising since the film’s producer, Judd Apatow, employs a lot of Jews in his projects. So much so that the movie’s director, Nicolas Stoller, said that he felt he was joining the “Jew-Tang clan” when he first worked for Apatow in 2000.

Stoller, 34, wrote and directed a “Sarah Marshall” spin-off titled “Get Him to the Greek” (opening June 4). Segel isn’t in the film, but he co-wrote it with Stoller, and Apatow is one of the producers. The plot involves Aldous falling prey to drugs and alcohol, and a record company intern (Jonah Hill, 27) proposing a comeback performance at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.

Columnist  Nate Bloom , an Oaklander, can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).