Looks like the trend of turning popular video games into movies is still growing. Movies have been announced based on Doom and American McGee’s Alice (a wonderfully twisted take on Alice in Wonderland) and now word comes that Jerry Bruckheimer Films is offering a seven figure deal to do a move based on the latest Prince of Persia game:

Yahoo! News - Jerry preps game plan for ‘Sands’

Deal includes a script being penned by game creator Jordan Mechner. John August is exec producing and supervising Mechner on the script.

Game, set in 9th century medieval Persia, tells the story of how a young adventurous prince who uncovers a dangerous artifact in a remote mountain kingdom and with the help of an enemy princess, must stop a despot from unleashing a sandstorm that could destroy all mankind

Mechner says Bruckheimer’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” was a touchstone for the adaptation. “Rather than do a straight beat-for-beat adaptation of the new videogame, we’re taking some cool elements from the game and using them to craft a new story - much as ‘Pirates’ did with the theme park ride.“

August says the character of the prince is like a 9th century Indian Jones. “He’s fourth in line to the throne, with no shot of ever becoming king. So it’s given him permission to lead a very reckless and exciting life.“

Also as if to prove that Hollywood is incapable of not repeating past mistakes, the folks at Warren Zide’s Anthem Pictures have acquired the movie rights to Namco’s Soul Calibur.

‘SoulCalibur’ battles to screen

The project will be Zide’s first under Sony-based Anthem, his equity-backed financing and production shingle. The video game story revolves around two warriors who are chosen by Shaolin monks to recover and destroy a powerful sword that has fallen into the hands of an evil prince who plans to use it to open the gates of hell and destroy the world.

Sands of Time I can understand as it’s pretty cinematic in its own right already and having Mechner writing the story helps, a lot. SC, however, is a friggin’ fighting game with only the thinest of plots behind it for crying out loud!

Other movies planned that are based on games include Far Cry, Fear Effect, Alone in the Dark, Deus Ex, American McGee’s Oz, Hunter: The Reckoning, Spy-Hunter, Fatal Frame, Silent Hill, Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, Onimusha, Devil May Cry, The Getaway, MechWarrior, Driver, possibly Hitman: Codename 47, Metroid, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, possibly Metal Gear Solid, Max Payne, Crazy Taxi, Duke Nukem, and for reasons I’m assuming are drug related Pac-Man.

It’s actually getting to the point that the question should be: Is there a video game that hasn’t been licensed for a possible movie? How many of these projects actually see the light of day (let alone will be worth seeing) is still up in the air, but there’s certainly no shortage of hopefuls.