New "Prince of Persia" Game a Movie Tie-in?

Reports surfaced yesterday that "Prince of Persia" creator Jordan Mechner filed a trademark request for the title "Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands."

This announcement has led some to speculate that a possible "The Forgotten Sands" game could coincide with upcoming feature film release of "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" in the summer of 2010.

Although the film is being produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, early production photos of Jake Gyllenhaal's portrayal of series protagonist Prince Dastan look laughable.

With the awkward transition from homosexual cowboy to shirtless, time-traveling Persian hero aside, will we see a polygonal Gyllenhaal come next summer?

The simple answer is hopefully not.

Movie adaptations of video games have been dismal and the same could be said the either way around - although movie-games have had a better record than game-movies.

Nevertheless, a movie-game tie-in of an existing franchise has been a recipe for total disaster.

Take a look at "Street Fighter: The Movie" or even the movie-games in the "Spider-man" series which pale in comparison to standalone video games.

When video games are made into movies, fans of the series are eager for the next game in that series, not a game that follows the same visual style and story of its film partner.

Hopefully with the title "The Forgotten Sands" we are looking at a standalone video game and not a spin off movie-game.