Some good news for the UK arrived this week, distracting us from our rainy sodden drought, in the shape of the release date for End of Watch on these shores - 23 November. This might be a couple of months after the US release but it's not too shabby, especially as this is not necessarily a film that travels especially well across seas. I'm hoping to be proved wrong on that. I'm also hoping for news of release dates for other countries soon.
Last night in Toronto, Jake Gyllenhaal was back in the company of Rufus Wainwright and Jorn Weisbrodt, a week after the concert. This time they ate together at the Harbord Restaurant in Toronto. As it's dinner time in the UK (an I'm hungry) I thought I'd post a link to their very tasty menu.
Lorene Scafaria is the writer and director of the imminent Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, a comedy starring Steve Carrell and Keira Knightly that looks for the bright side of the end of the human race and the annihilation of the planet. When asked about her inspiration, Lorene had this to say: "I was always more interested in the human relationships and the minutia of the people in the films, like 'The Day After Tomorrow' where I'm finding myself more invested in Jake Gyllenhaal's crush on a girl, not necessarily what was going to happen (to the planet)." Clearly, she has her priorities right.
A WDW Oxford Interlude
One of Oxford's most famous annual ceremonials took place today, the Encaenia. Conducted almost entirely in Latin, this 'Parliament of Dons' at Oxford University's most glorious and steeply-seated Sheldonian Theatre bestows honorary degrees on the wise and the good. They were particularly wise and good today. Crowds turned out in their hundreds to welcome Aung San Suu Kyi, and I was among them. These are history-making moments and I don't want to miss them.
Also in attendance were the Chancellor of the University, Chris Patten (whose robes were carried by a pageboy) and another honoree thriller writer John le Carré. More details of the visit here.
Jake Gyllenhaal continues to accrue airmiles as he flies between NYC and Toronto where he's filming An Enemy. On 8 June Jake was back in the Big Apple where he was snapped leaving a restaurant...
...but last night (Monday 10 June), Jake was back in Toronto to watch old friend Rufus Wainwright play at the Luminato Festival. Tweets were excited (there were glimpses) and they continued when Jake and K'naan were spotted waiting for a table later at Terroni. There was even a photo. A little bit more info here.
Updated to add that Jake's An Enemy co-stars Sarah Gadon and Melanie Laurent were also at the concert. Thanks to Mermon for the link.
Jake has regularly been spotted at Rufus concerts over the years and it's now almost five years since that most momentous of nights when Jake actually joined Rufus on the NYC stage to do the speaky bit in Between My Legs. Rufus plays Oxford almost every year. This year will be the third time I've seen him play here and every time I can't help but take a look at the wings... Time for a memory lane trip.
Good job to all the Toronto tweeters for being on active Jake Spotting Duty!
Jake Gyllenhaal in the glorious book We Make Our Own Destiny: Behind the Scenes of Prince of Persia (the postman was good to me today): 'Every time I walk onto one of the sets in this movie, I just think of all the children that I know and love, and how much fun they're going to have watching this movie... The fact is, I made it for them. And if I'm frustrated about something, I take a look at the sets of Alamut, or the Sandglass of the Gods, and I just think about how much fun the kids are going to have watching Dastan fight off the Hassansins and doing his jumps and leaps.'
'It brings me a lot of joy to think about that, because I remember how huge of an influence movie heroes had on my life when I was young. Kids today are brought up in a very different world. We're experiencing a lot of hard stuff. So it's really nice to have a movie that's a real escape and a metaphor for them that represents good. It's a nice feeling to be a part of something like that.'
Jordan Mechner: 'I think Jake is a fantastic choice for the role. Once you see him in costume and in action, you have no doubt that he can be the prince in sixth-century Persia... Jake definitely looks like the prince, but more important than how an actor looks is who they are, and the personality they project. Jake is strong, heroic, humorous, sensitive, and vulnerable, and you have no doubt he's going to do the right thing.'
Jerry Bruckheimer in an interview for HeyUGuys: 'For a start [Jake] is a wonderful actor and he is very handsome. We have done this with so many actors. Will Smith in “Bad Boys”, he was seen as a comedic actor. Nicolas Cage in “Con Air”. He had always played various characters but was never an action hero until that and “The Rock”. I’m a fan of certain actors and Jake is one of them.'
As you know, I got hold of some PoP lego a short time ago, and after a couple of photo opportunities in which Mini Jake took on the mighty Mallard and Dragon, I thought I'd have a go at something slightly more ambitious.
While tonight's post has been delayed by an Avatar and Pizza evening, last night was all about one man and a piano, Rufus Wainwright. More on that to follow tomorrow but in the meantime, here's a passing shot from something wonderful.
Pictures with thanks from Shockya, Disney, the lovely IHJ and moi.
Jake Gyllenhaal may have only just stepped off the set of one film but now we're waiting to find out what's next - will it be Nailed or will it be the Unnamed Moon Project, which may be named afterall, just not named very well, as Giant Leap? When Jake was interviewed for the UK's Channel 5 News back in October 2007, he affirmed that his next or next-to-next project was on the moon (as it were). And so I thought that maybe UMP maybe next for Jake after Brothers.
But then we hear that Nailed has a startdate of April 14. Not only that, it's actual production, according to IMDb, began in January. It is due to film in South Carolina and Connecticut and, possibly not coincidentally, the ACLU charity site had this prize on its bidding list a short time ago: 'The winner of this auction lot will visit Gyllenhaal on the set of his latest film in Connecticut, at a mutually agreeable date from the end of March through April 2008.'
No more has been heard of the Unnamed (or Badly named) Moon Project until this week and the imminent release of UMP director Doug Liman's new film Jumper. This UGO feature on Jumper was published this week:
UGO: What can you tell me about your upcoming moon colonization project? DL: It's with Jake Gyllenhaal. We're in development on it. It's a script I wrote about ten years ago. I think the greatest accompanishment in our lifetime really was the Apollo program. And rather than just tell the history of the first lunar landing, I want to make it relevant to a young audience by having the group today recreate what the Apollo program did forty years ago.'
In another interview, with Coming Soon, Doug was asked: 'What's next for you? The writers' strike is over, and while I assume you want to rest because this has been a long journey, do you think you'll jump right into "Untitled Moon Project" next and will you actually go to the moon to stay in line with how you made this movie? Liman: Yeah, I'm thinking very seriously about that film, and I basically have two approaches to it. The movie would cost about $100 million to make, so how much would it cost to actually go to the moon and make an IMAX documentary instead? Could I spend $99 million going to the moon and a million dollars shooting an IMAX movie or is it going to be a fictional story. I think ultimately, it's going to be cheaper to make the movie than to physically go (to the moon).'
And to add further confusion on the projected start date for UMP's production, MTV's movie blog seems to indicate that Doug may be first doing a biopic of CIA agent Valerine Plame, starring Nicole Kidman.
So I'm completely none the wiser and as confused as ever. I'm beginning to think that we may have to wait for Jake in Space until after Nailed. But with filming to start on Nailed in April, we'll know soon enough. I don't know what it is about UMP, but it brings out the October Sky and Moonlight Mile in me.
Jake dances along to Rufus
One thing we do know is that Jake went to see WDW favourite Rufus Wainwright again, a couple of nights ago, with a couple of buddies, at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles. According to one account: 'The crowd was fantastic. At one point in the middle of the show, Rufus was standing at the microphone trying to say something, but we are screaming so loudly and wouldn't let him speak. He loved it. He said, "I feel like Obama." The LA crowd definitely made him feel loved.'
'It was a seated venue, but a lot of the crowd got on their feet for 14th Street and Beautiful Child. It was fun to see Jake Gyllenhaal two rows behind us standing, dancing and singing his heart out to 14th Street. After Beautiful Child Rufus said, "when I wrote that song I thought how the hell am I going to sing that!......I sing it every night now."' Jake's certainly seen Rufus enough to have all the words learned by heart but it really is so good to hear of Jake having such a good time - and to a track as great as 14th Street too. This picture shows Rufus attending the Zodiac NYC party back in the Spring of 2007 - almost a year ago. The picture below that is gratuitous.
WDW favourite Rufus Wainwright is playing in Wilmington, Delaware, tonight and he's been interviewed (on the phone from backstage in Washington DC) by The News Journal of Delaware to mark the occasion. Rufus is asked about Jake Gyllenhaal and I absolutely adore Rufus' answer.
'I know Jake quite well, mainly because he'll admit he's a pretty fanatical Wainwright fan. He's been snooping around for a while, which has been lovely. Him, I don't look at as a mother. With him, I'm completely predatorial and willing to go anywhere, but I'm pretty sure he's straight. So that's not gonna -- whatever. We're fine. So I see him in Hollywood, and he's become quite a friend actually.'
I see this as a perfect excuse (as if I needed one) to repeat yet again one of my favourite moments of 2007. Good way to start the weekend.
'What you want and what is the truth are always two different things'
In David Fincher's interview with Jeffrey Wells that I posted yesterday, the discussion moved to Rendition and whether the character of Douglas Freeman was actually believable and how that passivity in the face of such horror would not be something David would normally associate with Jake's character. Jake would want to overpower him, David said.
So as a response, and because I love looking at Jake talking so earnestly and thoughtfully about a subject he's loath to make light of, here is a video interview in which Jake talks about the morality of the decision facing Douglas as well as Hollywood's role in enlightening audiences about some of the more disturbing events going on in the wider world.
Hollywood's role is to aid discussion - that's all it can do - and in America one is fortunate that the discussion is allowed. There's GyllenSpeak to relish here too: 'I don't know how anybody does anything good by thinking they're doing the right thing' and 'What you want and what is the truth are always two different things and I think that's like the human struggle.' Is there a translator in the house? But guess which scene Jake selected as his favourite from Rendition? A clue - it features Meryl and Peter.
Talking of translators needed... Here is an interview with Jake, and produced in German, in which he talked more about the role of politics and Hollywood. When asked if actors should use their celebrity to promote politics, Jake replies that he doesn't consider what actors have to say particularly interesting. Journalists should, in his opinion, ask politicians not actors for their political opinions because they have more power - and they are potentially more dangerous. Jake is asked whether he, and George Clooney, choose roles for a cause. He replies that he chooses roles that are concerned with emotions and with how humans relate to one another and not for a political statement. If the audience isn't affected then what's the point? 'George Clooney would probably say something similar to you, only funnier and more articulate.' However, Jake then goes on to say that every choice whether to make a film or not is inevitably political and all films are political to some extent.
I find it interesting that it sounds as though Jake and the other actors managed to turn off from the horror of the torture enacted in the film by the sound of 'Cut!' and simply walking off set. But I suppose that is a crucial ability.
Today is a Monday and what has made it many times more bearable for me today has been the UK release of the Zodiac DVD. I'm delighted to say that the release has been accompanied by a plethora of standing ovations in the press, perhaps supporting the view that this is a film well suited for the small screen. I do agree that this is a good film to watch within the comfort of your own sofa or chair and with supplies to hand. That way, you can enjoy every perfect minute of what is surely the film of the year - well, tied for first, I have seen Rendition after all.
Here are some quotes from the press that have accompanied the release. Philip Horne in the Telegraph: 'Graysmith, his San Francisco Chronicle colleague Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr), and David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo), the investigating policeman, try to make sense of the chaotic, hellish fixation that the taunting, elusive Zodiac entices them into – a paranoid universe of maddening leads and spooky red herrings. This film full of facts, codes, puzzles and, increasingly, fear, puts in perspective the 21st-century CSI or House forensic model of scientific adequacy. Here, people are fallible, jurisdictions compete, evidence is transmitted by snail mail. In this imperfect world, "Just because you can't prove it, doesn't mean it's not true." Paradoxically, the very-1970s Zodiac was shot on the Viper camera system, yielding a digital image of "almost unbearable sharpness" (Fincher). Zodiac's story is twisted and painful, but this "good movie" is so exhilarating I didn't want it to stop.'
The IndieLondon: 'David Fincher serves notice of why he continues to be regarded as one of the boldest, darkest and most fascinating directors of the moment with Zodiac, a gripping account of one of America’s biggest unsolved crimes... Fincher’s film works as both a riveting police procedural and an intriguing insight into the emotional toll of crime on the people investigating it... Gyllenhaal, for his part, has to wait for the film’s focus to fall on him given that his cartoonist begins as a hopelessly shy loner who follows the case’s progress from the sidelines. But once given the opportunity, the actor skillfully shows how it became an obsession that placed both his sanity and marriage at risk...There’s also a keen sense of time and place (San Francisco is particularly well shot) and a very nice nod to Don Siegel’s ’70s masterpiece Dirty Harry, whose villain was based on the Zodiac... It’s for these reasons – and several more – that Fincher’s film emerges as one of the finest American releases of the year so far. It’s essential viewing.'
I bought the DVD today and I can confirm that the half-hour special is the UK ITV4 special from earlier this year. I think this is well worth having - if only because of Jake with tousled hair wearing a purple t-shirt.
Someone please make Jake do Shakespeare
Jake's done it again - we've seen him pose like a Praxiteles Apollo or Hermes (woodchopper) - and now he's quoting Shakespeare. Jake has become an intoxicating mix of sex appeal and classical reference, possibly a good reason for why he is so alluring. With thanks to UV for locating the link, here is an interview with Jake from TIFF, in which he flaps his arms to keep at bay the heat surrounding him (I would have thought he would be used to that by now), pulls the plug on the slightest hint of a personal question and gives us, almost modestly, a line from The Merchant of Venice: 'I fear you speak upon the rack where men enforced do speak anything.' I can only beg Trevor Nunn and any other director with a bit of clout to get Jake onto a Shakespearean stage prompto.
Odds and sods
It seems that Jake spent Sunday evening watching our old friend Rufus Wainwright sing Judy Garland at the Hollywood Bowl. Speaking as someone who has seen Rufus dressed as Judy - in tux jacket and black fishnets - I can imagine that this was some night on a stage full of memories. Thanks to a WDW reader and others elsewhere, it appears that Jake was with his father, unofficial godmother Jamie Lee Curtis and a certain cap with a Big Red B on it.
Thanks to WDW reader Michele for uncovering the other talent behind Jake's public event style - twins Clare and Nina Allen - the other talent being, of course, the incredible material they have to work with, Jake himself. Looking around, the twins are everywhere, advising and dressing Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, Kirsten Dunst and many more, as well as being friends of Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz. Judging by Jake's appearances at the Baftas, Cannes and Toronto, they do a fine and, I think you may agree with me, enviable job.
I think I'd be disappointed if a week went by without a rumour regarding another future role for Jake Gyllenhaal and, true enough, this week's no different. This one's an unusual one and seems another take on Hollywood's yearning desire to get Jake into superhero spandex - I can see their point, but can Jake? This time it's Justice League of America, which presents almost every superhero and supervillain you can imagine in dire straits. (This story presents me with the perfect excuse to post pictures of Spandex Jake.)
Shooting by Warner Brothers is set to start in 2008 and the word is that they're after big names, and one of them is Jake. Other names linked to the colourful project - with very little evidence it seems to me - are Lawrence Fishbourne, Leo DiCaprio, Jessica Biel, Scarlett Johanssen and Mel Gibson. These days, if Jake wants a role, he just has to keep an eye on the internet and see what's being offered to him.
So what does Jake look for in a role? Here's an old quote from the dim and distant days of Donnie Darko. 'The truth is most of the films that make a lot of money no one remembers, and I'm not interested in making films that no one remembers. Whether it means they hated it so much they'll never forget it, or if it means they loved it so much that they won't. I'm less interested also in how it affects a career. The advice I've been given by a lot of people is: don't jump in too fast, do the things that you care about, and see what happens then.' Reading the rest of that interview, I would like to point out to Jake that I remember the 80s very well and I never heard anyone say 'rad'. It is interesting, this suggestion that Jake, at least then, didn't judge a project for what it would mean for the development of a career.
Curiously, in an article today about Broadway, successful director Lonny Price referred to Jake's hoped for role in Ferragut North. Lonny was asked if he approved of the boy band members and Hollywood names who toy with the stage. However, Lonny does not put Jake in this group: 'Jake Gyllenhaal's a wonderful actor, and I wish him well. The only time I think the Broadway community frowns is when it's just a name to be a name, and they're not skilled and not right for the role. And then that feels kind of cheap. I think movie stars are great. The more that want to come be on Broadway, that's just swell with me.'
Ang's cautionary tale
Ang Lee's Lust, Caution premieres on the same night as Rendition in Toronto (7th September) and this week Ang discussed the film in the New York Times, making comparison with his experience of Brokeback Mountain. Ang seems to suffer during the making of his films and, for Lust, Caution, he says he feared he was going insane. This film explores a whole different side to love, its dark and suspicious side. "Brokeback is about a lost paradise, an Eden. But this one — it’s down in the cave, a scary place. It’s more like hell." But like Brokeback, once Ang had read the story, he couldn't get it out of his head. '"At first I thought there’s no way I can make it a movie,” he said. But he couldn’t stop thinking about it. “There’s a point where I feel this is my story. It becomes a mission.”'
Rufus in Oz
Ang's not the only one to look back on his involvement with Brokeback Mountain. WDW favourite Rufus Wainwright is taking his tour to Australia in early 2008 - after his return to the UK for more dates at the close of 2007 - and the Australian press asked Rufus about the stars who have closed Between My Legs. One gets a special mention: "Jake is gorgeous," Wainwright says. "My boyfriend was very nervous. But we're still together. It was all above the belt." And of singing on the Brokeback soundtrack: "It was an important film. It's always good to screw up the mainstream. I think my job is to partly to screw up the mainstream and let the mainstream screw me. It's give and take." It's good to hear that a CD and DVD of one of the NYC shows is shortly to be released - I suppose it would be too much to hope...
And finally...
Maggie was in Chicago last week for some major public scenes for The Dark Knight - which caused not a little disturbance in the city by all accounts. But next Thursday morning, Maggie (and Hilary Swank) is scheduled to attend the Miss Sixty show for New York Fashion Week. Apparently the show has claimed a 10 am slot - the early hour could be a good thing if Maggie intends to hightail it over to Toronto in time to support her fiance Peter and brother Jake on Friday night.
Includes pictures from Psychologies magazine and IHJ.
You're going to want to sit down for this one - I know I did. I'm sure, like me, you had given up hope that any clip at all would emerge of Jake Gyllenhaal having the time of his life up on stage with Rufus Wainwright on 9 June. Well we were wrong! Today, we can at last see and hear the reaction of the so so lucky audience as Jake walked on to stage and we can just watch in amazement with them as Jake does his stuff in his own inimitable way.
These videos have a habit of disappearing so I won't apologise for the number of pictures here. Thanks very much to a good friend for giving me a loud shout!
