Lemons, Brothers hopes and Brokeback's Twilight lessons

A bitty post this evening, aggravated by the Great British Heatwave that has now reached Level 2 (the official advice from the government states 'Stay cool'). I walked past an empty hot pub this evening and there in the doorway was the landlord sporting a handwritten sign, ala Bob Dylan, with the legend 'This pub is nice!'. Jake Gyllenhaal and the cast and crew of Reese's DC-shoot movie have been following the British government's official advice and buying Rita's Ice by the ton, contributing to Rita's charity and signing lemons (paper not actual) to prove it. 'Viva DC!'


The Brothers buzz is beginning to build, although information is still scarce. Next year's Academy Awards will permit 10 films into the Best Movie category, widening the chances for films such as The Dark Knight to be nominated in the future, but also giving more opportunity to Brothers.


Empire has put Brothers into the Oscars Race: 'Jim Sheridan directs Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman in a remake of Susanne Bier’s Danish drama about two brothers, one of whom goes missing in Afghanistan, and the woman in their lives. If Oscar had a Facebook page, this would be one of its Top Friends, but much depends on the finished product. Sheridan’s 50 Cent movie spoiled a perfectly good run for the Irish director; hopefully this will get him back on track – and with U2 writing a track for it, expect a Best Song nod too. Status: Looking Good.'


Although there is no corroboration for this whatsoever, a poster on ProIMDb is suggesting that they have seen the trailer for Brothers, that it is good, and that it features U2's song Bad. True? Who knows, but we'll see soon enough.

Update: Another poster has just said 'I just went to an early screening of Public Enemies and this trailer was on it... It looks pretty good!' I'm beginning to think the trailer might be out there, waiting for us!


A video that has appeared on YouTube and caught my attention features an MTV interview with Melissa Rosenberg, the screenwriter of the Twilight saga.



In it, Melissa discusses her influences for turning the words of the original novels into believable characters in a script and on the big screen. Her influences for how to portray love were Romeo and Juliet and also, and most strongly by the sound of it, Brokeback Mountain. Brokeback Mountain is 'the great model of forbidden love'.


'MTV: So when it came time to portray the Edward/Bella romance, you thought about Heath and Jake? Rosenberg: Well, "Brokeback Mountain" for two reasons: One, the short story [that was the basis] for "Brokeback Mountain" is beautiful, pure, very small — 20 or 40 pages — and the writers of "Brokeback Mountain" [the movie] would take one sentence, one four-word sentence, and it would become a story line. It would become a character. It was such a beautiful adaptation. I learned a great deal from reading that book and then watching the movie. It taught me a lot about adapting. But I had the opposite challenge with "Twilight" than they had with "Brokeback" — with "Brokeback," they had to let it grow and breathe. I had to condense a great deal. For instance, with the James character and the evil vampires — taking what is really only the last 25 percent of the [novel] and bringing it forward. There were a couple moments like that where you go, "OK, wait a minute, [Meyer] is just suggesting this. But let's let it play."'


'MTV: But as far as the Edward/Bella romance is concerned, you see similarities to the "Brokeback" relationship? Rosenberg: Yeah, it was just so poignant, and the forbidden-love element, that you have this deep yearning and passion and yet you have to keep it secret — to want to be with each other and to have to stay away on some level. So "Brokeback," for me, was a great model for how to structure the romance in the story.'


Who would ever have thought that there could be a connection?