Full circle - Prince of Persia 'has everything' and Maggie Gyllenhaal talks about life, family, Jake

There's a mini pause this evening in my WDW Guide to Jake's movies for two reasons. Firstly, tonight, Prince of Persia finished its seven-week run in my hometown. This meant a mad dash across town to catch it. I bought my ticket and the girl behind the counter said 'You'll love it! This isn't normally my sort of film but it had everything - so much action'. 'Really?! I'm glad I made the effort to see it on its last day, then', I replied. But she was right. It was great. Jake Gyllenhaal was great.


And, on this final cinematic viewing for me, I appreciated the epic scale of the film more than ever - the royal grandeur of a family destroyed by one conniving sinister man - the beautiful holy cities attacked and religious sites desecrated - the blind honour of Garsiv and the blind piety of Tus - Dastan's loss and Tamina's isolation. Oh yes, and the fighting spirit of those ostriches. I hummed along to the score and hummed along to it even louder as the soundtrack played in the car on my drive back.


For over two years we have followed the creation and delivery of Prince of Persia here - from the announcement of Jake's association with it, through the filming in Morocco and then at Pinewood. We endured the news of the delay of a full year in its release (at the same time that we heard that Brothers had suffered the exact same fate while still disappointed about the obstructions in the path of Nailed). Then PoP arrived and we had two months the like of which we have not had with Jake before! Quite a few of us here managed to see Jake in person again or for the first time (for me, after more than two years since the time before in Rome) and we had the unusual treat of finding Jake spread large and magnificent across our newspapers, magazines and televisions.


Now, Prince of Persia has left many of our countries' screens and so the wait begins for the DVD in the Autumn (probably) and the release of Love and Other Drugs late in the year. Today feels like the end of a cycle to me and so I want to remember briefly the beginning of this spectacular time. This was the special screening of Prince of Persia in Leicester Square on 7 May that I was fortunate to attend (with so many thanks to Disney UK) with Ruby, Anouska and Winterbird. We sat on the front row and enjoyed the excitement of seeing Jerry Bruckheimer and Mike Newell interviewed a few feet from us. Here are pictures of the ticket from the event and the card that we were given as a souvenir.




The other reason for the pause in posts is this interview from Good Housekeeping with Maggie Gyllenhaal and Emma Thompson. There is little mention of Jake, except for this: 'I used to cook the way my parents cooked: They'd have a dinner party, and they'd still be cooking when their friends came over. When I cook that way, I have a terrible time. I can manage making salad when I have people over — anything else, I just can't manage it. My brother [actor Jake Gyllenhaal] is an incredible chef, a really gifted chef, and he can cook that way. I can't do all those things at once!' Nevertheless, it is well worth posting in its own right.


It contains wonderful images of Maggie's life with her husband and daughter, her relationship with mother Naomi and her friends. You can read it all here, where there is also a video interview. Nanny McPhee is out on DVD in the UK on 19 July



And finally...

In a new interview with Prince of Persia special effects supervisor Ben Morris, Ben had this to say about Jake during the final sandglass scene: 'Dastan is a mixture of real Jake Gyllenhaal and the odd digi-double. Jake really threw himself into the challenge and worked very hard to do most of the stunts himself. It really paid off in post, as we only had to do one face replacement in the entire sequence.' It's an interesting interview, showing what went on during that year-long delay to enhance the effects of this film I'm already missing.



Pictures from links and WDW.