Reece Ritchie's Jake Gyllenhaal anecdotes from PoP filming, and WDW Cornwall Interlude part 3!

It's a miracle I can type this evening - I spent the day in a very impressive imitation of a washing machine courtesy of gales and rain, finished off with some sandblasting. But before I get on to that below, to help my relaxation processes, this evening's post contains a couple of anecdotes about Jake Gyllenhaal from the Prince of Persia filming, thanks to Reece Ritchie (aka Bis, a character who had cause to be more grateful than most to the powers of the sandglass). Ouch ... talking about sand again...


Reece told Unification, when asked if he trained as much as Jake: 'It was a bit thrown together. We ran in Hyde Park several times.Jake had already started training and he said that every time we came to a bench, we should pump or do a similar exercise. He was already in great shape to begin with. I'm sickly anyway, I just had to grow a beard. It scratched me at first, but now I'm used to it. I still haven't shaved.'

Note to Jake: Whenever you come across a bench, you're supposed to stop and make a phonecall, at least in this neck of the woods because the cliff bench is the only place with a signal. I'm not certain if each network has its own bench.


Reece was also asked what was the funniest thing to happen on set. It involved Jake: 'Jake was sitting in one of those big director chairs when suddenly we heard a crack. Jake, the chair, everything fell to the ground. Luckily, Jake thought it was funny, he has a great sense of humor and he had a big laugh. Nobody had a big head there.' While this scene could have been taken straight from Inception, it's a shame that we have no PoP gag reel. This picture of Reece is one I took at the London premiere.


New old pics

Many thanks to IHJ for the new old pics today of Jake in NYC in 2002, almost but not at all blending in.



WDW Cornwall Interlude Day 3

Today could have been all about re-enacting The Perfect Storm such was the weather that greeted me and the cliffs this morning. But my dolphin trip was cancelled, largely because any right thinking dolphin and whale shark would have made haste for southern waters. The only fish I saw today was safely battered and presented with chips and mushy peas.

I went to Penzance but I couldn't quite tell if it was Penzance due to the incredible fog. Unfortunately the fog also disguised the true force of the rain. Some bright spark of a concierge told me it was a short walk to the famous old fishing port of Mousehole. Four miles later (bearing in mind that in that driving rain one step forward was four steps backwards), I did eventually reach it and dived in the pub. The village below was Newlyn which I walked through on the way. I'm reliably informed that Newlyn is famous for its ice cream. I gave it a miss.


Outside Mousehole the beach is decorated with camouflaged towers of pebbles, stones and boulders. It's very striking and the more you look the more you see.



Fortunately, the gods took pity on me and the weather cleared up beautifully on the long walk back and so, in a typical Cornish fashion, summer returned and I could dry out. It also meant I could see St Michael's Mount in the distance, which I had not been able to see at all earlier in the day. And now, as I write, the sea is still again and the light is blue. Tomorrow is another day.


Pictures from IHJ, Disney and WDW.

The Prince of Persia gets a sidekick and Maggie goes to work with Sam Mendes

Last seen wearing a leather wrap and chasing mammoths down the sides of Egypt's pyramids, 10,000 BC's Reece Ritchie has now signed up to be in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. And, according to the report, he will be playing the friend and sidekick of the Prince, who is to be played by Jake Gyllenhaal.


'The Disney film, which is being directed by Mike Newell (Harry Potter and Donnie Brasco) and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, is due for release in August 2009. It follows the Playstation computer game classic about a prince who teams up with a rival princess to stop an angry ruler from unleashing a sandstorm that could destroy the world. After attending auditions in London in January, Reece received the call that he'd got the part at the weekend and this means that he will be off to Morocco for filming of the video game adaptation in June. With the project also set to be filmed at the UK Pinewood Shepperton studios, Gyllenhaal, who has appeared in The Day After Tomorrow and Brokeback Mountain, plays the prince with Ritchie being his accomplice and best friend. The part of Princess Farah has yet to be announced.'


Whether or not this serves as confirmation, it does add credence to the rumour that Jake's next project will be Prince of Persia, with filming (in Morocco and London) to follow hard on the heels of Nailed. It also makes Jake's involvement in Roland Emmerich's 2012 - also due to start filming very soon - less likely. I am intrigued that Prince of Persia could well star two of Roland Emmerich's previous leading men and, instead of Jake and Reese in 2012, we could get Jake and Reece in Prince of Persia. For me, any film that could bring Jake to the UK is going to get my thumbs up (especially a film in which, for the Prince, a shirt is an optional extra).


So I'm going to say it again, it's a small world after all and, to emphasise this, the news came today from Variety that Maggie Gyllenhaal has signed up to replace Toni Collette in Sam Mendes' new untitled comedy. Sam Mendes, of course, directed Maggie's brother and other half in Jarhead.


The Focus Features comedy, 'which stars John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph, is about a young couple who travel around the U.S. searching for a place to put down roots. Dave Eggers and wife Vendela Vida penned the original screenplay. Gyllenhaal will play a bohemian college professor who is an old friend of the character played by Krasinski. Collette dropped out of the film due to scheduling delays on the shoot, which recently got under way in Connecticut. Gyllenhaal begins lensing her role next week.'

'Lensing her role' - now there's an expression you don't hear every day. This isn't a leading role and so may fit in nicely before Maggie goes off to Tasmania to film with Paul Bettany. Going off on a bit of a tangent, if filming is due to start next week, this may indicate that Peter Sarsgaard is now finishing off filming An Education in England.


'The most beautiful thing that's ever been created'

Talking of going off on a tangent... Amy MacDonald, the Scottish singstress and self-confessed Gyllenhaalic, has been playing The Living Room in New York City. Amy's album 'This is the Life' has been a huge success in the UK and is shortly to be released in the US. The song LA is reputed to be all about a certain 'boy named J', or, as the reviewer of the NYC gig says, 'the man that Macdonald once declared “the most beautiful thing that’s ever been created."' No argument there and I heartily recommend the CD which has many fine tracks on it, in addition to the one inspired by Jake.


Includes pictures by IHJ.