Gyllenhaal to be Prince of Persia

Speaking of non-biblical epics, Empire has announced that Jake Gyllenhaal is taking the lead role in Mike Newell's Prince of Persia. Gemma Arterton will play an "exotic princess who aids him in his quest".

Prince of Persia is based on Ubisoft's popular computer game of the same name (rather than any actual history, although there is some link with 'The Book of One Thousand and One Nights'). As I know nothing about computer games I'll quote Empire's description of the film's plot rather than risk my own.

In Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Gyllenhaal will play Dastan, a prince of Persia (naturally) in the sixth century who must defeat an evil nobleman and stop him getting his hands on The Sands of Time, a gift from the gods that has the power to reverse time and can give its possessor the power to rule the world.

Having just been studying Ezra and the surrounding history I assume that this means the sixth century BCE rather than CE, but in any case I suspect the question is almost irrelevant.