Jake Gyllenhaal 'worked his heart out' - A look back at WonderWeek (and another WDW interlude)

It's been quite a week. After several years of focusing on movies with relatively serious or adult issues, we've not been used to the hoopla involved with the promotion of a huge summer blockbuster. But, if there was any doubt at all that Prince of Persia is going to be huge, it's been put to rest by the events of this week. Jake Gyllenhaal stunned and wowed the crowds and critics at WonderCon in San Francisco last weekend and we can still feel and enjoy the ripples. But this week has also demonstrated the breadth of Jake's movie choices - while we've celebrated PoP we've also listened to Jake enthuse over Source Code and working with director Duncan Jones. And we've even seen some Source Code filming. So I think a recap is in order of what has been WonderWeek.


First off, we have another interview in which Jake reveals that he researched for Prince of Persia by going back to 6th century Persia and living in a tent with Daniel Day Lewis. One gets the sense here that this was one of the final interviews of the day...



In this Reelzchannel set of interviews with Jake and the rest of the PoP WonderCon crew, Mike Newell has this praise for Jake: 'He worked 18 hours a day to make himself into an action here. And he rehearsed the fights, and he rehearsed the riding, and gymnastics and the wall-running and this, that and the other. He worked his heart out to make himself into a really satisfying action hero. And he did it.'



So... what did we get this week?

Jake told about.com that he couldn't help but slip into Prince of Persia Parkour mode on the Source Code set - much to the alarm of the SC crew.


Jake told Destructoid that if anyone pokes fun at his poster he'll 'kick your ass in a dark alley' and 'like it or hate it, it's pretty damn good.'

Hanging on a wire for hours while the crew tried to perfect gaming manoeuvres gave Jake a really bad rash but 'the rash was worth it' and Jake had to regularly take all of his clothes off for the special effects guys to scan him. Moving between the different units meant Jake ate less lunch than everyone else.

The English accent is now a dinner table party piece.


Jake channelled Buddha in his preparation for stunt scenes, meaning that his two years at Columbia still have a practical use.

We had two new PoP featurettes: Story and Hassansins and another fan question answered, this time on Parkour.



Jake loves his lego even though it looks like a buffed up Indiana Jones in a mullet.

Jake can't do the water section in the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time game and likes the prince's attitude when you accidentally cut his arm off or hurl him to a painful senseless death on spikes.

Zelda was 'super dope'.

They would still be filming Prince of Persia if it were to be in 3D.

Jake was told that he was 'unnnghhhhhhhhhhhh!' and pretty ('I just thought you should know that').

Jake got an iPad but Jordan Mechner doesn't want one.


Jake can happily talk about Top Gun for quite some time.

Nailed is now The Nail and Jake has finished all of his filming.

Jake can sing better than he dances.


Everyone marvels at Duncan Jones's collectors' t-shirts.

Jake called Ben Kingsley Sir Ben.

No-one says Hassansins like Mike Newell does.

Source Code got a day's work outing to Chicago (you can see some more pictures from that day here).


The plot of Source Code is extremely difficult to explain but 'it will blow your mind'.

Links for more and all of this can be found in the posts from the last amazing week and, as we've said here so many times this week, it's not even May yet!

Includes pictures from IHJ.

And finally - and so off topic it's ridiculous...

I went to Cotswold Wildlife Park today in search of lemurs - they were all asleep. In compensation, there were ostriches and scratching camels. I did try to avoid them, but there was no helping it - there were meerkats.