The end of the writers strike meant that Jerry Bruckheimer and friends could continue to develop the movie adaptation of The Prince of Persia, a well known video game. The director is Mike Newell, who directed Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and all that they need now is a cast, but most importantly, a lead. Well those semi-detective people over at IESB have got their hands on some market research analysis for the film. Which could be naughty of them, but it gives us an incite into the minds of the makers. The market research has numerous questions, asking things such as:
Considering the image and personality of the Prince of Persia video game: who would you select to play this role?
It then gives a list of actors who the people could chose from, including James McAvoy, Orlando Bloom, Cillian Murphy and Zac Efron (wtf). However, the actor with a massive 70% of the vote, with 10,000,000 votes (yes, 10 million) is…David Zandi.
Then there are questions such as ‘would you take your family to see Prince of Persia motion picture, if Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney hires David Zandi to play the lead role of Prince Dastan?’ and ‘what should he be compensated: taking into consideration Warner Bros paid Daniel Radcliffe $500,000 in 2000 to play the lead in Harry Potter and in 2004 they paid unknown actor Brandon Routh $1,000,000 to play Superman in Superman Returns.’
David Zandi should be happy that 46% of people voted $1,000,000 and that people would take their offspring to see him in action. You can check out more questions and statistics by clicking here.
Now if this market research analysis is legit, then it seems David Zandi may be up for the lead role in the Prince of Persia. However, I have just one problem…I don’t know who the hell he is.
IMDB shows that he has played an uncredited Alien in Men in Black II and it also has a small biography:
Prince David Zandi is a member of the Persian royal family, working as a Motion Picture Executive in the US. Prince David attended a Diplomatic High School in Switzerland from 1994 to 1996, during the same time he worked as a fashion model. In 1996, after high school, Prince David moved to New York City to study acting and later attended UCLA for directing and cinematography. In the Summer of 1997, he took a job at the United Nations HQ in New York, working as a Liaison between the Procurement Division and Headquarters Committee on Contracts. In 2000, Zandi took a job on Wall Street as an Entertainment and Financial Analyst, he dealt primarily with Media and studio stocks (Time Warner, News Corp, Viacom, Disney, Sony and GE). In 2003, Prince David worked as a Production Coordinator. He was promoted to Production Executive in 2004. In 2007, Prince David Zandi launched Vengeance Media a Motion Pictures financing house. He is presently working as a Producer and Actor on select motion pictures. June 14, 2007.
So let me get this straight. He is a Prince…and a member of the Persian royal family….he is a Prince of Persia…
Cast him now! This is the most obvious casting decision since Patrick Stewart was cast as Professor Xavier in X-Men, Ian McKellen was cast as Gandalf in Lord of the Rings and Eminem was cast as himself in 8 Mile.
Cast him now!
