Orlando Bloom is the Prince of Persia?

Has Orlando Bloom been cast as the Prince of Persia in the upcoming film of the same name? Well, that was the rumor as of this morning. Reportedly a princely sum of $40 million was offered to secure Bloom's lovely visage and acting chops for the role in what was to be Disney's tent-pole trilogy for the next five years.

Turns out the rumor was untrue and Walt Disney Pictures quickly issued a denial. That's not to say Orlando Bloom wouldn't be great in the role. I thought he was great in Kingdom of Heaven, and that other little trilogy that he helped to propel to over $3 billion (with a b) in box office.

We do know that Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) is directing and Jerry Bruckheimer is producing.

Any juicy gossip we're missing here?

Tags: disney, movie, orlando bloom, prince of persia, walt disney pictures

♦DiggIt! ♦Add to del.icio.us ♦Add to Reddit ♦Stumble This

Jungle Cruise rumors

Disneyland's Jungle Cruise attraction received a much needed plussing a few years ago for Disneyland's 50th Anniversary. Some new special effects, can you say Piranhas, and a return of the guns to the Hippo pool are some of the improvements that have most Disney fans happy to queue up for the classic attraction once more.

There was a rumor going around that Walt Disney World executives were hot to install some of Disneyland's improvements to the languishing Jungle Cruise attraction at the Magic Kingdom. Word now making the rounds is that the Magic Kingdom's attraction won't see any significant changes until after more is known about the upcoming movie based on the Jungle Cruise attraction and a promotional tie-in could be arranged.

With the Writer's Strike and looming Actor's Strike there is an effective hold on all movie work in Hollywood. This means folks in Orlando could be waiting a long time for more attraction updates. At least those like Jungle Cruise that have movie tie-ins.

Conrad Calling

While I'm on the subject. The title of the upcoming Jungle Cruise movie is rumored to be "Jungle Cruise: Heart of Darkness". I'm presuming a relationship with Joseph Conrad's book of the same name which was an allegory for man's passage into an industrialized world. If so, this has some interesting opportunities as we move from an industrialized world to one based on information.

However, I seem to recall that Walt Disney found some inspiration for his Jungle Cruise attraction from the movie "African Queen". That would seem to be more fertile ground for a movie. But what do I know. Dick Cook, who currently runs Walt Disney Pictures, once worked at Disneyland on the Jungle Cruise attraction. I'm sure he's keeping a close eye on this project.

Tags: disney, disney pictures, jungle cruise, dick cook, movie, hollywood, film, rumor, magic kingdom, wdw, disney world

♦DiggIt! ♦Add to del.icio.us ♦Add to Reddit ♦Stumble This