Jake Gyllenhaal is clearly aiming to lend new meaning to the expression 'a tad busy'. Not only has his play got an extension - taking him almost all the way up to Christmas (everyone in the Gyllenhaal-Sarsgaard family will be receiving book tokens this year, including the babies) - and End of Watch is being released across the globe, then there's Prisoners to make and now we have confirmation that Jake is still to make Mississippi Grind next year. Not only that, it has a production month - May. Travelling down the Mississippi in May sounds good to me. The news comes from John Lesher, End of Watch producer who sounds very glad to be working again so soon with Jake.
This interview comes courtesy of the London Film Festival where Michael Pena has also been doing his bit to promote the movie. I must apologise to the End of Watchers for the classic October London weather but at least it wasn't foggy...
This seems like an excellent point to add a link to my review of End of Watch from the festival's Saturday screening.
There are some great new publicity shots for End of Watch over at IHJ. Here are a couple.
I wrote a guest post at Demention, a blog owned by novelists who look at the world a little differently. It's about time travel. You can read it here!
End of Watch has its UK premiere tomorrow at the London International Film Festival. The premiere is likely to be Jakeless and the film doesn't open in the UK until 23 November but it's good to see the film cross the pond. This might also mean the beginning of publicity over here. This is also a catch up time. Here is a taster of an interview with Jake Gyllenhaal for Sunrise in Australia in which Jake talks about how his friendship with Heath Ledger affected his performance in Brokeback Mountain for the better. It's always good to hear Jake talk about Heath and the Mountain. Always.
There is another interview here with Jake and Michael Pena by Ben Lyons, which I think I missed. There have been so many! Just watch what you say about Jake's mum....
There are another couple of videos showing the scene outside the If There Is Haven't Found It Yet theatre. Jake does seem more relaxed with the big theatre crowd now as he makes memories for an awful lot of people and fans.
Thanks to IHJ there are more photos from the production. Here is just one...
And finally
It's been announced that Paul Dano - one of the Loopers - is to join Jake, Hugh Jackman and Melissa Yeo in Prisoners, possibly as the kidnapper. There are more details here.
Talking of Looper, my review is up on MovieBrit. This weekend I'll be reviewing End of Watch as I'm fortunate to have a ticket for its Saturday screening at the LFF!
Busy days! So without any further ado or beating around the bush, sit down, put your feet up and let's get on with it.
First off, End of Watch will get its European premiere in London at the BFI's London International Film Festival in October. Not only that, it will be in competition so I hope it's revising as we speak. It's unlikely that Jake Gyllenhaal will be there due to the fact that he might be preoccupied on a NYC stage but this is great news for End of Watch, falling as it does on the heels of its appearance at Toronto this month. It's wonderful to see a film of Jake's doing the film festival circuit again - but what a shame that it's happening when he's too busy to shine on all those red carpets.
I'm delighted to see that the film's Dating clip is now available for all of us to see, whatever side of the pond we're on, so here it is.
If There Is...
I'm so pleased that we now have official photos from the If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet production in NYC! It's good to get an idea of the set and also get a proper look at Jake as Terry.
To go with the photos, the NY Daily News has an interview with the cast, in which Jake talks about what drew him to the play: 'I read it a few years ago and fell in love with Nick’s dialogue. I think any story about a family is fascinating, too, because it’s filled with complications both universal and specific. There’s never-ending inspiration in that. If you’re going to do a show eight times a week, you need to have stuff to draw on every night.'
Jake is also asked about whether real life has influenced his interpretation and performance: 'Of course. I think real life is bound to affect any sort of artistic process. I have two beautiful nieces and they’re both an inspiration to me. One of the things that I love about this play is that it’s about a relationship that I understand... I don’t have a similar experience to the one that we have in this play, but being an uncle is something I draw up on every day and night. The family is a microcosm for political themes that are involved in this play — the environment and the issues going on of how we treat the world.'
And we hear more about the Famous Water Scene: 'When Michael pitched to us what he was going to do with water in this show, Br ian’s face changed — his eyes got wider than I’d ever seen before. He may have wanted to walk out at that moment. [O’Byrne nods, and laughs.] The water is a beautiful metaphor. I really think that Nick and Mike are a new wave of British talent and this production a perfect example of how to work together. This production is very different from the one in London a couple years ago.' Do read the full interview here.
