UPDATE: Nightcrawler! Jake Gyllenhaal seeing double: First image from An Enemy, plus poetry, basketball and a Drama League Award Nomination

Update! NIGHTCRAWLER!

According to Variety, Jake will be co-producing and starring in (probably) Nightcrawler alongside Rene Russo.

'Jake Gyllenhaal is continuing to focus on edgy, adult thrillers as he is set to star along with Rene Russo in the indie “Nightcrawler” that Tony Gilroy will produce. Dan Gilroy is helming from a script he penned. Story follows the story of a driven young man who discovers the nocturnal world of L.A. freelance crime journalism. Gilroy will produce along with Gyllenhaal and Jennifer Fox along with Michel Litvak and David Lancaster who are producing and financing via their Bold Films banner. Sierra/Affinity will kick off international sales in Cannes. CAA packaged the film and co-represents the film’s North American distribution rights with WME. The film marks the directorial debut for Dan Gilroy, who co-wrote “The Bourne Legacy” with his brother Tony Gilroy.'

So, another 'driven young man' role.... What do you think?

On with the post...

It's been another busy week for Jake Gyllenhaal. It's been so hectic, surely one could be forgiven for seeing double.

Yes, this week we've had the first image of Jake and Jake from An Enemy or Enemy Within. Whatever the title, it's certain that you'll get twice the Jake for the price of a cinema ticket. With the film due this autumn, it can't be too long before we have a trailer. Thanks to IHJ for this! And hot on the heels of the Nailed images too... (see last post - there are more Nailed images featuring Jessica Biel at Jessica.biel.com).

Jake has also been spotted over the last few days in the company of some very familiar faces. On 17 April, Jake attended the Poetry and the Creative Mind event hosted by the Academy of American Poets at the Lincoln Center, NYC. The resulting official pic is a bit of a who's who. Seeing Jake sitting next to one of my favourites, Kathleen Turner, is a cause for celebration.

Jake read Wild Geese by Mary Oliver and Ave Maria by Frank O'Hara. There are more details and images here. This is one of those events I would have loved to have attended.

On 23 April, Jake and Marcus Mumford joined Ben Stiller, Christine Taylor and Spike Lee to watch the Boston Celtics play the New York Knicks at Madison Square Gardens. I must admit that one's eyes are rather distracted in the photo below...

Marcus Mumford, Jake Gyllenhaal, Christine Taylor, Ben Stiller and Spike Lee gave a standing ovation as the Boston Celtics played the New York Knicks during a playoff game at NYC's Madison Square Garden April 23. One has to wonder at Jake's allegiance that night - maybe he cheered for both teams. Whether he liked it or not, Boston Celtics were defeated 87-71. I once umpired a game of basketball in 1985 despite having no knowledge of the rules - so I feel qualified to comment. Thanks to IHJ for the pics!

Also on 23 April, Jake was nominated for a Drama League Award - a Distinguished Performance Award no less - for his performance in If There Is! The awards will be held on 17 May - so much luck to you Jake!

**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.

Jake Gyllenhaal - a hero with his very own cropcircle - and the ultimate lethal workout

Jake Gyllenhaal may not have visited Sweden (yet) - and he may even have got rid of the Volvo - but, nevertheless, according to this Swedish video, Jake is The Hero, drawing all to Heroland. If you've ever wanted to see Jake's face on a hotair balloon drifting past the Eiffel Tower, or you've been longing to have the Ultimate Jake Gyllenhaal cropcircle in your own cornfield, then this is the video for you. And is Jake Gyllenhaal really the hero? Of course - as everyone knows, a UFO cannot be wrong. I would advise against eating small, hard objects while watching this video due to the choking hazard. Thanks very much to TD for the link.





After yesterday's talk of Jake's very early role in Josh and S.A.M. - a film that is consigned to that largely obsolete technology of VHS (for the life of me, I can't get my video to work anymore) - it was great to be sent this screencap from Gretchen.


I particularly liked that picture of young Jake (or Leon as he is in the film) because he kind of reminds me of this Jake:


Many thanks to IHJ for these new old pictures from March 2006 which show Jake and a friend working out in LA at an extraordinarily dangerous sports place where you don't so much buy water as try and catch it.


Please note how I'm not mentioning the socks... and it's really, really hard not to.




Includes pictures from IHJ.

I've written a post this evening on MovieBrit on Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang on the occasion of Emma Thompson receiving her Walk of Fame Star today (with Maggie Gyllenhaal by her side).

Catching up with Jake Gyllenhaal - twizzlers, pie plates, Ask Jake, bands, Parkour, stuff

This is a bitty post because, you know how it is, you have a weekend away in Austin, Texas, and then there's all the catching up to do. So I've made a Jaking List:


1). Let's get the important stuff out of the way. Here below we have Jake Gyllenhaal with a red stick thing. A source informs me that this alarming object is actually a food item. It is known as a 'twizzler'. In the UK, twizzlers are an abomination - they are made from turkey and have been the subject of a major 'get them banned before they kill us' campaign. I am hoping that the bright red variety is a lot better for Jake than the twisty turkey type.


2). We've had a chance to ask Jerry Bruckheimer our PoP questions on Facebook (and I'm still thrilled they picked one of mine), but now, for a few hours, you can ask the Prince himself! You have til 10pm, London time, to get your questions in for Jake. No mention yet of when the video answers will air. 'Jake, do you regularly eat twizzlers?'

3). Jake's Mellow Johnny's cycling hat, complemented by his friend's shirt, reminds me of a new post at Bike Snob, in which the writer and cyclist waxes lyrical over why he so happy to be in posession of Jake's pie plate.


4). Jake and his friends moved on from sport to music last night and went to see Mumford & Sons play the Troubadour. Not surprisingly, this set Jake's fellow boppers atwittering with tweets congratulating Jake on both his music taste and his hotness. It's not only sportsmen falling at Jake's feet...


5). And continuing the music theme, on Friday 19 February, a video for the new single by Vampire Weekend will premiere on Channel 4 in the UK and, we're assured, it features a Jake Gyllenhaal cameo! 'Exclusive first play of Vampire Weekend's new single Giving Up the Gun, which features cameos from Jake Gyllenhaal and Joe Jonas in the video.' It plays at 22:50 on Rude Tube. I must admit to being intrigued and not a little perplexed. So that's one to watch. Thanks to Karen for the heads up!

6). In a fascinating and revealing interview, writer Ben Ripley discusses the momentum that has propelled Source Code into production...


7)... while Parkour king David Belle talks about bringing parkour into the movies, including Prince of Persia: 'The idea is you move around with the actor to see where his limits are. How much can he do? I can do this. It is up to you as the coordinator to determine where those limits are and whether he needs to be substituted with a stuntman, whether it is a risk that he can handle or not. Unless he is really comfortable with it, it is probably better for him to be substituted with a stunt guy. Now, in the case of Prince of Persia, Jake prepared himself well physically and he was able to do a lot of stuff himself. '


8). Sir Ben Kingsley was on The One Show this evening and he was asked about Shutter Island and not Prince of Persia! What a travesty...

So what have I missed off my list? Oh yes, Jake is hot.


Includes pictures from IHJ.