Hollywood on the run and on the move

Today is the London Marathon and I have exhausted myself watching it on the television while drinking cups of tea. To mark the occasion, this post is decorated with photographs of my favourite runner, speedy Jake Gyllenhaal.


Hollywood in space

The Guardian newspaper today ran an article about Hollywood's search to find an actor with sufficient gravitas to play Neil Armstrong in a new movie. What's interesting here is the criteria that the producers must be using to select an actor to play this ultimate hero. For instance, they will want someone who is not only famous but also has global appeal, respect and is sufficiently 'worthy', as well, of course, being able to look photogenic while moonwalking.


Brad Pitt and Viggo Mortensen have been mentioned, along with other stars of the right age: Matt Damon, Eric Bana, Christian Bale, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jake Gyllenhaal. I like to see Jake's name on such a list.


The role itself sounds like quite a challenge: 'The astronaut, now 77, is solitary and monosyllabic. 'The word "no" is an argument to him,' his first wife Janet once remarked. He still refuses all interviews, makes only occasional public appearances, and goes out of his way to avoid any form of civic honour. 'I don't want to be a living memorial,' he once grumbled. He has even refused to let a hospital take his name... Playing Armstrong won't be easy, especially as the leading man will be required to deliver the most famous fluffed lines in history.'

I'm still hoping that Jake will be able to squeeze in his own Moon Project at some point this year.


Jake and Peter Part 2

Following on from yesterday's post on Jake Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard, notably the bit where Peter poo pooed Jake's regime of 500 press ups in preparation for Jarhead, here is a quote from Jake that shows that Peter may have been stretching things just a little as well. But I do like the way that Jake is able to convince himself as he talks that, yes, maybe it was a 50 mile hike after all.


'“Jarhead” co-star Peter Sarsgaard claimed they had to go on a 50 mile hike, to which Gyllenhaal responded, “50 mile hike? Is that what Peter said? The smoker… We did go on a long hump at the very end of our week of boot camp. We basically went through what they go through in six weeks but in a week - very, very quickly and just getting a taste of it. And at the end, we were running drills. We were in teams and we were taking hills and things like that. And we were sleeping out in the field but had to hump out to the field. So we got all of our gear together and went for a pretty long hike. I don’t know about 50 miles, but I’ll go with 50. I’ll go with that. That sounds intense.'


As the cast and crew of Nailed gather around the streets and public buildings of Columbia, South Carolina, the question has been raised here of what one should do or say when faced with the possibility of an imminent Jake encounter. When doing further research about the Palm Springs Festival, I came across this fan's account of seeing Jake on the red carpet as he strode into the auditorium. Her impulse was to turn her back on him and pose for a photograph. This is not the WDW recommended course of action.


This also shows how times have changed - in the theatre foyer in Rome, Jake had to walk through an intimidating scrum to get to his seat.

Talking of Palm Springs, here is a fuller account of Peter's affectionate presentation speech: 'Sarsgaard said he was planning to say nice things about Gyllenhaal, since they all picked on him during the making of "Jarhead." However, the first thing that Sarsgaard noted was Gyllenhaal's great hair. He said, "Jake's got an amazing head of hair. Look at it, it's incredible. He then proceeded to talk about other eccentricities: "His dogs are named Boo and Atticus (the characters played by Robert Duvall and Gregory Peck in the film "To Kill a Mockingbird). If that doesn't tell you who Jake is, I don't know what will. Jake grew up in a family that loves stories, and Jake chose acting to tell stories."'


Going off on a tangent here but all of the presenters and honorees at the festival that year, including Jake, were given a Pevonia beauty goody bag, including anti-stress shower gel and a silky skin body scrub. See page 10 of this pdf.

Hollywood leaving Hollywood

This article caught my eye for a couple of reasons. It gives an account of a decision made by one of Rendition's producers, Erin Newell, to establish a company in Indiana which will focus on drawing film business to that state. While this sounds like this was partly in response to home sickness (possibly brought on by the distant shoot of Rendition), it is also further evidence that states outside California are becoming increasingly competitive in their campaigns to seduce filmmakers into their area.


Just following Jake's career, we have seen this with both Brothers and Nailed, with New Mexico and South Carolina putting serious efforts into beating their rivals - especially in Nailed's case, which appears to have shifted its base entirely from Connecticut to South Carolina. It's also interesting for an outsider to see just how big a business it is attracting productions - it involves local government, tourist boards and local industry. Of course, in the end, it appears to boil down to tax incentives and scenery.


And finally

If anything shows that there is an urgent need to get information about practices such as rendition out there into peoples' minds, it's this: 'I teach a college seminar called "Secrecy: Forbidden Knowledge." I recently asked my class of 16 freshmen and sophomores, many of whom had graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school classes and had dazzling SAT scores, how many had heard the word "rendition." Not one hand went up. This is after four years of the word appearing on the front pages of the nation's newspapers, on network and cable news, and online. This is after years of highly publicized lawsuits, congressional inquiries, and international controversy and condemnation. This is after the release of a Hollywood film of that title, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep and Reese Witherspoon. I was dumbstruck. Finally one hand went up, and the student sheepishly asked if rendition had anything to do with a version of a movie or a play.'

I can just imagine Jake throwing his hands into the air at that one.


Includes pictures from IHJ.