Jake Gyllenhaal catch up as Jake goes undercover as Detective Loki

As we move into February, Jake Gyllenhaal has gone underground. Busy at work on Prisoners in Georgia, probably, he appears to have gone underground. Occasionally a twitter glimmer may sparkle but it's fair to say that there have been more sightings of the Tower of London's headless masked prisoner ghost over recent days than there has been of Jake Gyllenhaal. Obviously, if you spend all your time in Georgia's spin classes or whole food stores then you've almost certainly seen Jake every other day but, for the rest of us, Jake is as one with Detective Loki and has gone undercover.

Glimpses of Jake's co-star, the Tuneful Hugh Jackman, have been slightly more common. Jake has, though, been seen at 'Watershed's Uptown Martini with oysters, steak tartare, jambalaya, lamb ragout, coconut cake, sweet potato creme brûlée and hot milk cake'. I have only one thing to say to that - except for the fact that Jake has clearly not lost his appetite - but sweet potato in creme brulee?? The mind boggles. The one bit of news we do have is that the DVD and blu ray of End of Watch now has a release date in the UK and it's not too far off at all - 18 March. If you fancy it, you can get a pretty posh edition from Amazon. In the absence of news, it falls to my lot to post a couple of videos of Jake from bygone days. The first is from the Berlinale in 2012, almost a year ago now, followed by a little glimpse of an interview with a wee Jake from October Skies days. You will find more from this interview on these pages.

 

 I also wanted to post this wonderful photo of Naomi Foner and Dakota Fanning from Sundance as well as a photo of Peter Sarsgaard with the Lovelace cast, also from Sundance.

Thanks to IHJ and JustJared for the photos.

**Updated Update!** Gyllenhaal-Foner-Sarsgaard Sundance Takeover; meet Detective Loki and End of Watch out on DVD in US today

Update.... Again!

I wanted to post a couple of videos from Sundance - one of the Very Good Girls premiere and the other from Lovelace. I feel that posting the latter is my civic duty because, through this video, you can see for yourself the full horror of what can happen if a Face Pet is allowed to run free and fed too much. No wonder Jake shaved his off. And there was me thinking it had something to do with Prisoners.





A couple of the featurettes from the End of Watch DVD have also been released thanks to 411mania.com.  So here is Watch Your Six:


and Women on Watch



Update! Jake did indeed attention the premiere of Very Good Girls last night (sitting alongside Celebrity Godmother Jamie Lee Curtis) and how proud he looks! Many thanks to IHJ for these spectacular photos.

It's a big week for Jake Gyllenhaal and his family but I'd like to thank them for keeping it relatively low key while I had flu. Tonight, Naomi Foner's movie Very Good Girls - the film of the filmset that Jake frequently visited - has its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. There had been doubts about whether Jake would manage to be there - reminding me of last year when so many thought that Jake was there when all the time he wasn't (or was he?). This time, though, a series of tweets from excited people at Atlanta Airport makes it look as if Jake has indeed made the trip. No doubt in return for doing extra tea duty on the set of Prisoners.

Naomi has spoken a little today about what directing, a shift in her life, means to her.

'Time is not on my side. I came late to directing, although I’ve been writing screenplays for most of my life, so I am in a hurry. In my case, it was, grandma directs a movie. And that meant literally, limiting the time I got to spend with my favorite people on earth, my grand daughter Ramona, and her new sister, Gloria who arrived weeks before we began to shoot. That was a big trade off, but I am hoping that they will get to see this film, and others one day. That they will tell their own stories in some form, because grandma (and mom) keep telling theirs. It’s a struggle to balance family and work for men and women, and filmmaking is especially challenging. But it lets us touch people we would never otherwise know, while still holding our dear ones close. That seems like having your cake and eating it too.'

Of course it never rains but it pours (at least in Britain), and tonight Sundance also sees the screening of Lovelace, a film which stars Peter Sarsgaard. What a day! A big family desert reunion could be on the cards.

Sundance has been a popular film festival for Jake over the last 13 years or so, as just a quick search of the WDW archives reveals. Jake even featured in a movie shot at the Festival. Brokeback Mountain premiered at Sundance (Jake talks about that here) and Donnie Darko and Good Girls also had fine days in the sun. 

And then there was this performance from 2004.

Detective Loki!

This week we got our first look at Jake's new Prisoners character Detective Loki. It's a look a little reminiscent of Nailed and Love and Other Drugs but has several things going for it, not least the well-shorn face. I want to take some scissors to that bouffant though... There are a set of photos over at PoPSugar, including this below of Jake and his relatively hairy co-star, the extremely well-voiced Hugh Jackman. Interestingly, this appears to be Jake's second film character with a neck tattoo! Maybe it would be easier if Jake just had one done.

End of Watch out on Blu Ray and DVD in the US

End of Watch is out in the US on disc today. While the rest of us have a while to wait at least this means we can hear something about the quality of the features. Unfortunately, as we knew, no Jake commentary (such a loss - who can't love Jake's commentaries to Bubble Boy, Donnie Darko, Moonlight Mile and Zodiac?).

Here are some comments from Flix66: 

'Feature Commentary with Writer/Director David Ayer: A deeply insightful commentary. Ayer goes into a lot of detail explaining his choices for END OF WATCH.
Deleted Scenes (46:41): Seventeen deleted, extended and alternate scenes that at a lot of depth to the characters and film. Although interesting, most of these were rightfully cut to maintain focus and proper pacing. However, I think a few of these would have been OK to keep in the final cut.
Featurettes (10:59): Five very short fluff featurettes about 2 minutes each that offer nothing of much substance – “Fate with a Badge,” “In the Streets,” “Women on Watch,” “Watch Your Six” and “Honors"'

There's a further assessment at CinemaBlend which makes good reading.

This, I believe, may be a DVD feature but it may not be...

Mission!

So, all of you out there in Atlanta and Utah - keep your eyes peeled and those cameras primed!

Thanks to IHJ and links for photos.

**Updated** Catching up with Jake - at play and at work. News on Prisoners, Grind and Face Pet

As the well-known expression goes, the proof is in the pudding and without doubt the latest pictures of Jake Gyllenhaal are a big, fat, luxurious blancmange of a pudding, proving beyond all reasonable doubt that the beard really has gone. It was not just wishful thinking brought on by a blurry photo, a magnifying glass and a Jake Gyllenhaal Identification Kit.

Last Sunday (13 January), Jake was courtside to watch (spoiler) the Brooklyn Nets beat the Indiana Pacers in Brooklyn, NYC. There is a brief video here of highlights so get that Jake Spotting Kit out again. Thanks to IHJ for the lovely photo of a very Renditiony like Jake.

There is another video, though, and so with thanks to Laure for the link...



And here's a photo from it. There are no words to describe Peter's beard. Suddenly the Face Pet seems like such an innocent creature.

Prisoners

Filming is due to start on Prisoners tomorrow (16 January) with no doubt a very happy and tuneful Hugh Jackman. More clues about the filming have emerged, such as reports of false snow (if they were filming in the UK they'd not have to worry about any such false snow nonsense - I believe that Oxford would make a fine movie city double). There has also been an additional casting of a Dark Knight villain David Dastmalchian.

The filmmakers are also extremely set in their ways about what sort of cars they want in Prisoners as can be seen in this bit of casting information:

'The first casting call I’ve seen for this one seeks men and women ages 18 to 55 with cars of various colors, but not red, white, really bright or with custom paint jobs.'

Why not red? Why not white or bright? My car is blue, if only I weren't so far away...

There is more information about the filming location here.

One thing is for sure, the attachment of  Hugh Jackman to Prisoners in this great year for Hugh can bring nothing but good to this exciting project.

Talking of Hugh Jackman, here is a shamefully blatant link to my review of Les Miserables (This link should now work!)

Grind

There is also more news about the project after Prisoners (probably), Mississippi Grind. Not only is Jake set to be one of the two male leads in this film but he he is also producing, doubling the potential significance of this film.

Variety reports that Ben Mendelsohn (Animal Kingom) is in talks to play the older of the two men - the 'a gambler in debt who sets off on a road trip through the Southern U.S. with a young gambling addict in an attempt to change his luck'.

'Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck will write and direct the pic. Besides Gyllenhaal, Lynette Howell, John Lesher and Jamie Patricof will also be producing through Electric City Entertainment.'

Further background information comes from Cinemablend.

All in all, exciting times! With no Face Pet!

Thanks again to IHJ for the beautiful old new photos from the Love and Other Drugs days of 2011.

**Emergency post** The filming of Prisoners gets underway with dire consequences for the Face Pet

We have much to thank Denis Villeneuve for. Having whisked Jake Gyllenhaal off to Atlanta to start work on Prisoners with Hugh Jackman, there was one vital task that Jake had to do before filming could begin. The removal of the Face Pet otherwise known as the Great Shave. While I reflect on the irony that Jake may well have shaved off the beard on the same day that we bestowed on it the name of Lincoln, here is the proof thanks to this Twitterer.

I believe that Atlanta has a more clement winter climate than NYC which also means the added bonus of decent footwear.

Thanks to Sasha for the heads up!

Jake Gyllenhaal breaks his New Year's resolution already

As we go into 2013, it becomes clear that Jake Gyllenhaal is not doing his bit to keep the New Year Resolutions that I so kindly made for him. Jake might be working off the holiday feasting by going to the gym (along with three quarters of the population) but what he has not done is a) despatch the Face Pet and b) abandon all ugly shoes. Clean Shaven With Nike is my 2013 motto for Jake.

On New Years Eve, Jake decided to give my birthday invitation a miss. He instead attended a concert by Jay Z and Coldplay.

On 4 January, Jake was spotted leaving Soul Cycle in NYC. The committee is still out, trying to determine the exact nature of what it is that Jake has on his feet but it's pretty clear - I can spot a Christmas present at 50 feet.

Speaking of the holidays, I was delighted to see that Female First have voted as one of their 12 Men of Christmas.

Thanks to IHJ for the first pics of 2013!

I've been doing some movie reviews over the last couple of days:
The Impossible
Quartet

2012 - A GyllenYear Retrospective!

Happy New Year!

As we look forward to a year with a veritable array of Jake Gyllenhaal projects in it - An Enemy, Prisoners and, possibly, Mississippi Grind - let us make time to sit down and reflect on a packed out 2012. After a long quiet period, in which there was little to do other than watch the speed of Jake's beard growth, everything really kicked off, thanks to the release of End of Watch and Jake's NYC stage debut in the play that will be forever abbreviated to If There Is...

January

Luckily, in January we were treated to what has become a regular annual appearance for Jake - presenting at the Golden Globes. In 2012 this was especially special because he introduced Brokeback co-star and good friend Michelle Williams. IMDb also voted Donnie Darko its second top film of the last decafe (behind The Dark Knight).

February

In February it was Time to Dance. Jake headed to London - Dalston to be precise - and caused quite a stir while playing a serial killer and getting his hair cut. Jake must surely have appeared in more music videos than any actor. It's just a matter of time before he releases his own single. Also in February Jake popped up in Berlin where he was one of the judges for the 62nd Berlinale.

March

Jake was back in NYC in March and the screenings of End of Watch began - to a very good buzz. Also came news that Jake was about to star in Denis Villeneuve's An Enemy. Even more exciting than that, Jake wouldn't just be the star, he would also be the co-star. A Double Jake Movie. No wonder we were happy at such good news, especially as it followed so swiftly the non-news that Jake would appear in Motor City.

April

In April, Jake was one of many celebrating the life and work of his 'celebrity godfather' Paul Newman. He was also doing his bit promoting the work of Edible Schoolyard. Then came news that Jake would appear on stage in NYC at last! Before Jake headed off to Somerset in England to celebrate the wedding in wellies of Marcus Mumford and Carey Mulligan. The world (well, me) speculated that Jake may have been the golden matchmaker. For much of April Jake was in Toronto prepping for An Enemy. Things were getting busy!



May

Finally in May we saw the trailer for End of Watch. It seemed a long time since the filming last summer. We heard more about the filming from Anna Kendrick who was being regaled at Cannes. Meanwhile, Jake continued to sweat away in Toronto on An Enemy, all two of him. Filming kicked off on 21 May.

June

June was a very busy month of filming for Jake but at last we got an official poster for End of Watch. The cast of If There Is... grew while there were rumours that Jake might star in Puzzle Palace.

July

An Enemy was in the can leaving time for Jake to relax. One of the ways in which he did this was to visit the set of Very Good Girls in NYC, a film directed by Jake's mother Naomi Foner and starring Dakota Fanning.

August

Jake kept himself busy in NYC leading Soul Cycle spin classes while no doubt rehearsing for If There Is which opened at the end of the month for previews. We also heard for the first time that Jake was considering Mississippi Grind, a project that still lingers in the realms of possible. If There Is... opened at the end of August and we were lucky to have a friend in the audience, Lisa aka BBMISwear and we got some wonderful firsthand reports including original photos! Jake also appeared on the Letterman Show - everything was reaching 'gotta sit down and fan myself' excitement levels.

September

In September End of Watch burst upon audiences at the Toronto International Film Festival which was attended by Jake, quite unexpectedly due to his hectic play schedule. We also got news that End of Watch would have its UK premiere at the London Film Festival.The film opened in the US on 21 September in a blaze of TV appearances and media interviews  If There Is... officially opened on the same day. Nothing quite like being busy...

October

Jake was confirmed for Prisoners - alongside Hugh Jackman -  at the beginning of October. This project looks to be as fast moving as An Enemy, even having an opening date a mere year away. If There Is... was proving so successful its run got an extension while End of Watch opened to much hoo haa in Australia. Jake also got to cook with Mario Batali again, putting the fear back into risotto. I got to see End of Watch at the London Film Festival which put a smile on my face (when I wasn't hiding from the scary bits).

November

End of Watch finally opened in the UK and that meant a flying visit to Blighty by Jake and an appearance on the Graham Norton Show with two thirds of Top Gear. Fortunately, Jake survived. Jake had a brief break from the play and was able to fit in more good causes, including the Arts in the Armed Forces event which was also attended by Lisa, meaning we had another eye witness report!

December

December has been a relatively quiet month for Jake - that is if you don't count starring in a play at least once a day, including on his birthday. If There Is.... finally finished in time for the holidays, no doubt leaving Jake some time to spend with new additions to the Sarsgaard-Gyllenhaals. It looks as if Prisoners will kick off shortly in the New Year with much of the filming to take place in Georgia. Meanwhile we wait and see if End of Watch will have left any impressions on the gong hander-outers while enjoying the great success that the film had at the box office and amongst critics such as Roger Ebert.

And so...

And so it has been a good year! 2013 promises to be just as good if not better. This year completes nearly six years of blogging here at Wet Dark and Wild and it is quite possible that there will be changes over the next few weeks. Social media has changed enormously over these years and a blog such as this may have to move on with the times and its readers.

I must take time to thank all those who take the time to comment and interact with me on WDW. This is hugely important and I appreciate it. Never underestimate how much you fuel a blog by commenting on it.

Thanks especially to my good friends Stephanie at IHJ and Lisa/BBMISwear, without whom.... x

Cheers!