Jake Gyllenhaal will decorate your tree, his daily reincarnations, Peter and Maggie's new projects and Moscow!

It's a holiday weekend in the US - something to do with casting off the yolk of some other country - which seems like a golden opportunity to think about Christmas. You mean you haven't bought all your presents yet? But never mind the presents, the veggie nut roast, the mulled wine and the Queen's speech - this year it's all about the decorations. With many thanks to BBMISwear, who is admirably setting a fine example in her preparedness, here is her newest Christmas tree bauble. It might not flash red and green, but it has other qualities.


Yes, no Christmas tree will be properly dressed this year until it has a bunch of flying Prince Dastan baubles. If there had been any doubt at all that Jake Gyllenhaal has moved on to a whole new level of fame following the success of Prince of Persia (well over $300m worldwide now) then all that is removed with his arrival as a Christmas decoration. This does beg the question of course of whether you can alternate your Dastans with ostriches - or, as Jake sometimes calls them, Austrians. Maybe a nice camel for the top.



As part of the Prince of Persia publicity, Jake appeared in a great interview with This is Notthingham, which featured in a post here a month ago. This interview appears elsewhere, but it contains a little bit more, and it's pure JakeSpeak.


'"There’s no reason to do a movie like this if you can’t do the stunts. It was all about functional fitness, being able to do everything that was asked of me,” he says. But he couldn’t have prepared himself for such intense media scrutiny focused solely in the direction of his newly honed abs. “Yeah, cue me taking off my jacket,” he says laughing loudly as the question regarding his physique coincides with him removing his coat.'


'“I think there’s a definite focus on vanity, and I think we all focus on it, which is so unimportant to me,” he says. “What’s interesting is the character being played. The images from the movie are the only thing people have seen so… And it’s fine, I mean it’s definitely flattering.”... Given Prince of Persia’s themes of fate and destiny, does he believe in ‘The One’? “‘The one’ meaning ‘the one great movie’, that’s what you mean, right?” he deadpans.'



'“Oh… a lady!” he says in mock surprise. “Do you know what I believe in? I believe in carnation and reincarnation. I believe it’s sometimes a daily thing, a weekly thing, where we reincarnate and become different people and change in our days, in our weeks, in our years. I mean I’m not the same person I was even when we made this movie,” he says. And the idea of ‘The One’? “I do believe in soul mates and I think that destiny has something to do with that, yeah,” he says with a wry smile. And with that he’s called to face the world’s press and no doubt more questions about those abs.' More here.



With all the excitement of Prince of Persia, I'm afraid it's inevitable that I've lost sight a little of Peter Sarsgaard and Maggie Gyllenhaal. I'm waiting for Knight and Day to reach the UK to see Peter on the big screen again. His big-headed appearance in Green Lantern is more disturbing a prospect. As for Maggie, Crazy Heart has recently been released in the UK on DVD and Nanny McPhee is on the way.



But this week we have had the first reports of new projects for both. The news of Maggie's did originate in the Mail but even so the news that she may be making a movie about the Victorian origins of the vibrator couldn't help but make me think about Jake's forthcoming film on viagra. Surely a DVD pack made in heaven...?


The rumours surrounding Peter's possible new project are a little more staid but equally ambitious. He 'is attached to star in a biopic of the country music legend Bill Monroe, the man who helped create the bluegrass genre. Sarsgaard (An Education) reportedly approached Oscar-winning writer Callie Khouri (Thelma and Louise) about helping to rewrite the first draft of the script, ostensibly with himself in mind as Monroe. While the bluegrass biopic is still in early stages of development, it will likely come together as a low-budget independent film, with Finn Taylor (The Darwin Awards) in the director's chair.' Of course, this also means we could get a singing Peter! Can't be bad.


This post is illustrated with some great new pictures from the Moscow premiere of Prince of Persia, courtesy of IHJ. Looking at these pictures, I can't help but feel sympathy for the Twilight fans in Leicester Square last night who waited for hours for the Eclipse premiere and not one of the three main stars turned up. Although, admittedly, it would be difficult to find a premiere as odd as my experience of the Zodiac LA premiere...



Pictures from IHJ and WDW - thanks BBMISwear :-)