(no subject)
Today, I came across the original screenplay of the PoP movie written by Jordan Mechner in 2004. After that it was rewritten by four (!) different writers. So I thought I would share it with you.
PoP original Screenplay
For the tl;dr crowd some of the major changes:
- Dastan wasn't born a peasant and has three brothers: Tus, Farhad & Farhan (the latter two are vain twins); and Nizam isn't their uncle
- Persia is fighting against Turan
- Alamut's defenders are waaay more competent. It's actually quite a bloody battle where both sides are more equal.
- Tamina pretends to be civillian when the city is sacked and becomes a slave
- The character Garsiv still exists, but he's captain of the guards
- Nizam gives the poisoned rope to Dastan and it's Tamina who frees him by killing two guards. Basically Tamina actually knows how to use a sword. But she's also kinda clumsy, lol.
- Tamina's family actually gets a mention: her father and brother die during the Persian attack. (It's Tamina's brother who was supposed to get the dagger out of the city but he gets killed by an arrow)
- Farood the bandit/nomad replaces Sheik Amar. Dastan and Tamina join his caravan on their way to Alamut
- Tamina does some erotic dancing... Had this script gone through, PoP would definitely have gotten a R rating.
- The way the Sands of Time were created is quite different.
- That Dastan and Tamina have different religious backgrounds plays a bigger role. As does the temple under the city. In fact Dastan refills the Dagger directly from the Hourglass.
- Dastan and Tamina actually almost have sex...
- At the end, time rewinds back to the opening battle - before the Persians have won. Dastan and Nizam acutally duel amidst the battle. And in the end Dastan kills Nizam himself.
You know, I quite liked it. Some scenes were hilarious. XD And in hindsight some of the changes make no sense to me. Like having Dastan be adopted. Or that Nizam had to be the king's brother. Or introducing the Hassansins. Also, I wish Tamina had kept her sword skills. That would have been awesome. I'm glad they got rid of the twin brothers, though. They were useless here.
Source
cross-posted to po_persia2010
PoP original Screenplay
For the tl;dr crowd some of the major changes:
- Dastan wasn't born a peasant and has three brothers: Tus, Farhad & Farhan (the latter two are vain twins); and Nizam isn't their uncle
- Persia is fighting against Turan
- Alamut's defenders are waaay more competent. It's actually quite a bloody battle where both sides are more equal.
- Tamina pretends to be civillian when the city is sacked and becomes a slave
- The character Garsiv still exists, but he's captain of the guards
- Nizam gives the poisoned rope to Dastan and it's Tamina who frees him by killing two guards. Basically Tamina actually knows how to use a sword. But she's also kinda clumsy, lol.
- Tamina's family actually gets a mention: her father and brother die during the Persian attack. (It's Tamina's brother who was supposed to get the dagger out of the city but he gets killed by an arrow)
- Farood the bandit/nomad replaces Sheik Amar. Dastan and Tamina join his caravan on their way to Alamut
- Tamina does some erotic dancing... Had this script gone through, PoP would definitely have gotten a R rating.
- The way the Sands of Time were created is quite different.
- That Dastan and Tamina have different religious backgrounds plays a bigger role. As does the temple under the city. In fact Dastan refills the Dagger directly from the Hourglass.
- Dastan and Tamina actually almost have sex...
- At the end, time rewinds back to the opening battle - before the Persians have won. Dastan and Nizam acutally duel amidst the battle. And in the end Dastan kills Nizam himself.
You know, I quite liked it. Some scenes were hilarious. XD And in hindsight some of the changes make no sense to me. Like having Dastan be adopted. Or that Nizam had to be the king's brother. Or introducing the Hassansins. Also, I wish Tamina had kept her sword skills. That would have been awesome. I'm glad they got rid of the twin brothers, though. They were useless here.
Source
cross-posted to po_persia2010