The way the lively 68-year-old Newell tells it, making the mega-budget Disney epic adventure was an insanely involved epic adventure in itself. In the gruesome scene where one is sliced open, Newell says that on set he used a bicycle inner tube for the snake and chopped tuna for its guts). (Despite his haul, those scary vipers in “Prince of Persia” are computer generated images. The creepy crawler-catcher wore a T-shirt emblazoned “Snake Dude” as he collected Hollywood-unfriendly poisonous critters in glass jars before the day’s shoot and between takes. “His name was Snake Dude,” director Mike Newell says with genuine admiration. Or the happy-go-lucky Moroccan man whose daily job was to clear the expansive desert set of venomous scorpions and snakes. Try being the ostrich trainers who kept the hefty, temperamental, feathered actors from ripping out Gyllenhaal’s heart. and Jerry Bruckheimer Inc.)įrom left, Alfred Molina, Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton trudge through a dusty desert scene.Ĭhisel-chested Jake Gyllenhaal may look macho as the sword-fighting hero of “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time,” but he’s a wimp compared with some gutsy folks who worked behind the scenes when the film was shot in Morocco. Hassansin Whip Man (Thomas DuPont, left) battles sword-fighting hero Prince Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) in “Prince of Persia.”ĭirector Mike Newell (center) on the Moroccan set for “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.” (Andrew Cooper / Disney Enterprises Inc. Review: `Prince of Persia' slips from memory (May 26, 2010).