Hot lists and Pinewood Blue - in Prince of Persia not all is as it seems

You might not have noticed, being all too focused on the extraordinary attention to detail shown by the costumes, weaponry and architectural flourishes (not to mention the fine horsemanship and orstrichmanship), but Jake Gyllenhaal was rather hot in it. If I could have drawn my eyes away from the intriguing headware worn by an army of extras or the exquisite nutcrackers, I may even have appreciated glimpses of Jake's chest and arms. But it's very clear that audiences did indeed notice Jake's charms as shown by his appearance in more Beautiful and Amazing Body lists.


Obviously, there's been some mistake, though, because in PoPSugar's list, they accidentally added an extra 1 next to Jake making him 11th and not first. In People's Most Amazing Bodies issue, Jake is mystifyingly not on the cover. Zac Efron is. The Pale One tops PoPSugar's list, hinting that Jake may look a little too hot for this list. You can see some of the other dubious names to make the list here.


Big thanks to IHJ for posting scans from the June issue of American Cinematographer, a fine magazine that reveals some curious facts about movies by looking at some of the technical aspects of their filming. I still remember the Zodiac article three years ago. In this issue, the attention falls, of course, on Prince of Persia, which presented its own set of problems for those behind the cameras.


The detailed discussion of effects and green screen is fascinating but I was particular interested to hear that one of the biggest challenges was caused by that hardly unexpected factor - desert sun. In order to solve problems of continuity, some of that desert blue sky is in fact not Moroccan but was pinched from Hertfordshire and the skies above Pinewood. I hate to think how long the cameraman had to wait.








Work out

In recent weeks we've seen (happily) quite a few pictures of Jake leaving the Tracy Anderson Method Studios in Studio City, LA. We have speculated if this is a sign of specialised training for a movie role. However, sister Maggie has also been seen leaving a Tracy Anderson studio this week (11 June), in New York City. So maybe it's a GyllenThing... Maggie left the towel look to Jake though. After all, he does do it well.


And finally...

It's the end of the era - Harry Potter finished umpteen years of filming this week, which gives me the perfect excuse to post this, our very own HP - courtesy of the very talented PG!:


Includes pictures from Disney and IHJ.