Good news! Jake Gyllenhaal on Spike TV, Dastan's a Dennis the Menace, a little competition and Oxford's Iron Man

Before I get going tonight, I have to thank Disney for the wonderful pressie in the post last night of tickets for the advance screening of Prince of Persia in Leicester Square next Friday! I won't be able to speak about the film for a week, due to the timelag with the US - noone wants spoilers - but it's shaping up to be an incredible weekend. Judging by some tweets over the last few hours, it also looks like Jake may have just arrived in the UK. Typically, it's decided to rain today for the first time in weeks... but then it is May Day. Anything else wouldn't be traditional.



Last night Spike TV showed an interview with Jake Gyllenhaal that was conducted at WonderCon last month, in which Jake talked about the 'nice little challenge' that was the Prince of Persia. He also admits to encountering a fair few spikes and severe falls while playing the games. Many thanks to IHJ for capturing the video for us all.



Jake also features in this month's edition of The Notebook (Kensington and Chelsea). They have now removed the interview from their website but here are a few snippets. Jake: 'I love watching this type of film. So it’s hard to deny yourself the opportunity to be up there on screen acting in one of them. There are all sorts of different aspects to acting, but if you’re a very physical person as I am, it’s great to just jump around for once, to leap off buildings, ride horses, play with swords and get into a lot of fights. It’s really great fun. The other thing is that if you’re going to do a huge movie, then do it with people who know how to do it, and there’s no one better than Jerry Bruckheimer.'




'Q. It seems like Dastan has a bit of Indiana Jones in him. Was that your intention? A. Oh yes, definitely, along with Dennis the Menace and all the rest. I like that Dastan’s a mischief-maker, a bit of a curmudgeon, that he nearly always thinks he’s right and that he’s quite sarcastic and wry and above all very cheeky.'


'Q. You’ve played characters based on real people, but where do you begin with a fictitious 6th century Persian prince? A.There’s lots of pretentious research I could tell you about, but it really did start with the accent and also with projecting my voice. For a movie like this to be successful, you need a grand scale to everything, a bigness, something theatrical. I worked with a voice coach, and she brought in these ancient texts. I would stand at one end of the pool in Los Angeles, she’d stand at the other end, and I would shout things like, 'Over the wall, men! Over the wall!' It was like doing theatre. It put a bit more fire inside, made me feel a bit more like a warrior. There was a lot of physical work too...'



'It was six months of training and what was important about it to me was that it was very functional. Everything I did was so I could do the same thing on set, not for aesthetics. I wore a flak jacket to work out and carried an extra 20lbs when I went on a run to simulate the armour, which is very heavy. Whenever I ran I’d also carry something in my hand to get used to running with a sword. I also did lots of boxing to make sure I was even on both sides, because Dastan often fights with two swords at once and everything has to be symmetrical.'


'Q. You never thought about getting a stuntman to do the difficult bits for you?
A.[Laughs] No, I always want to do as much as I can myself. And I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to fight sequences. I want to get every move down perfectly, and I refuse to accept anything less than that.'


Any attempt to deny the Englishness of the Prince of Persia crew can be put to rest instantly by these images of Mike Newell's desert outfit. Best to do a doubletake, such is the success of his blending in...


The LA Times has written an article today on how men are wearing less bling, citing Jake Gyllenhaal on the cover of GQ as their example. Not the early medieval Persian way at all.


A little WDW Competition

Due to reasons beyond my recall, I have a surplus of the 'Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Amazing New 3D Never Seen Before Poster Book' complete with 3D glasses! It includes a 'GIANT pull-out 3D poster and over 50 3D stickers' and about 30 pages of full colour pictures, some of which are also 3D (including a skeleton...). I thought I'd take a pic (please excuse the state of my rug, it's not used to modelling and didn't decide to sweep itself first).


There are three to give away - all you have to do is write to me at wetdarkandwild@googlemail.com and tell me the name of the king who adopted Dastan as his son and the names of Dastan's two royal brothers. The correct answers will be put into my Red Sox hat and the impartial Mr WDW will pull out the three winners. The closing date is Premiere Day 9 May. I don't mind where you live, just as long as you have a letter box.

A May Day Interlude

Today, as expected, a lot of people in ballgowns and tuxedos got tipsy listening to the choir sing from the tower of Magdalen College in Oxford at dawn. Despite the attempts by police year after year to prevent people from chucking themselves into 2 foot of water (full of crayfish too), thirty made the leap and amazingly didn't get hurt. But they did get wet. Good job the pubs opened at 6am today. And then the morris dancers came out for a twirl. They even put a straw boater on Oxford's very own Iron Man (by Antony 'Angel of the North' Gormley). The BBC had it all covered.


Talking of Iron Man, I saw No 2 this afternoon and I've written about it on MovieBrit. It is a bit spoilery.

Pictures from Disney, courtesy of IHJ, WDW and, with humble thanks, Mr WDW.