Updated: Jake Gyllenhaal covers Esquire UK for December! Ed Zwick on forming a 'real relationship' with his LAOD actors

[Update] Today we have our first physical sign that Love and Other Drugs is crossing the pond. Jake Gyllenhaal is on the cover of Esquire UK for December 2010! And it will prove a favourite for all those missing Sasquatch. This could be the photoshoot that we heard mention of last month. Many thanks to Mermon for the heads up. Source. Time to head for the shops!


On with the post...

While Jake Gyllenhaal catches up with his Triumph and old friends (in this case, Busy Phillips), Ed Zwick has continued to prepare the ground ready for the big Love and Other Drugs publicity later this week. Today, Ed is talking to the LA Times about how this small budget film allowed him to get close to his actors. One can also see why the budget was so low - it appears that the vast majority of it was shot in a bed.


'"In my experience, when you're young and really into somebody, you spend a lot of time lying around in bed but not necessarily always having sex," Zwick said recently, calling from the Midwest, where he was touring a college campus with his daughter. "So we wanted authenticity — what would it really be like? How would you be lying, and how long have you been in bed, and how many times have you made love before this?"' Those were the questions Zwick explored with his actors in the two weeks leading to the 49 days of production.'


'"We didn't have a lot of time to shoot the movie — and we did it for a very reasonable price, $30 million — so we all had to be very committed to the process," he said. "It was as much talking about our lives and our relationships and men and women and sex as it was rehearsing. As a director, I do feel it's wise to try to be in a real relationship with these actors. Sometimes it's real, and sometimes it's not. But in this case, it was so real. We genuinely became close, and I think some of that is reflected in the film."'


'"When you're making these bigger movies, you are necessarily drawn away from the actors at times — whether that's because there are so many things that are mechanical or not," he said. "Here was an opportunity to divest myself of all that and only focus on the performances. It presents a whole other set of challenges too, because you don't have the opportunity of an action set piece or a big pageant-like scene — all you have is the nuance of the emotional life and story."'

You can read the rest of the interview here.


Jake on a Plane

Thanks to IHJ for this scan from US Weekly, which gives an insight into one of Jake's many flights across the US. Maybe the crew wanted to take advantage of Jakes culinary prowess and get him to help serve the lunch. A note to US Weekly though, I think you can lose the label.


A WDW Samhain interlude

Commercialised halloween as it exists today means very little to me but I do have a respect for the ancient history of these shores and to mark Samhain, Mr WDW and I took a ride on our Triumph to see the Rollright Stones. These so-called King's Men Stones were erected about 4,500 years ago, not too far from Oxford, and, tucked away as they are, have a remarkable atmosphere. Very often, you will be the only visitor.


Pictures from IHJ and WDW.