Roger Ebert puts End of Watch in his 2012 top ten and a video interview with Jake Gyllenhaal

** HAPPY NEW YEAR! **

I hope you're all enjoying the holidays and - if you're in Blighty - that you haven't been swept away to sea in the floods and - if you're in NE USA - that you haven't frozen to your snow shovel. As one (ie, me) continues to work one's way through an inexhaustible mountain of cheese, I thought I'd aid your digestion with a quick post. This is merited because a) I've been missing you and b) Roger Ebert voted End of Watch his fourth favourite movie of 2012!

'Here is one of the best police movies in recent years, a virtuoso joining of performances and often-startling action. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña as Taylor and Zavala, two Los Angeles street cops who bend a few rules but must be acknowledged as heroes. After too many police movies about officers who essentially use their badges as licenses to run wild, it's inspiring to realize these men take their mission -- to serve and protect -- with such seriousness they're willing to risk their lives.'

Meanwhile, a video interview from Extra  in which Jake Gyllenhaal talks about being tasered (not for the first time and possibly not for the last) and New Eyes for the Needy.

Thanks to IHJ for the fab new pic from the set of Time to Dance.

My review of Life of Pi on MovieBrit.

Jake Gyllenhaal in Toronto as preparations for An Enemy heat up and a catch up with Maggie

Having spent a few days back in NYC, helping to knock the inhabitants into shape by taking over the SoulCycle spin class again, Jake Gyllenhaal is now in Toronto where An Enemy is due to begin filming on 22 May. Tweets spotted Jake at the airport and then in the city where the sets for the movie were being built. When Jake wasn't helping with that (no doubt putting those legendary carpentry skills to good use), he was outside having a smoke. He has also been meeting with other potential members of the cast.

Being in Toronto may come in handy next month for Jake when The Shoes' Time to Dance video is entered in the Scene Not Herd section of the Toronto Short Film Festival. More details here.

End of Watch is released in the US on 28 September. On the same day, Maggie's film Won't Back Down is also released (conflict of interest for relatives). The trailer has just been released.



Meanwhile Maggie's next movie Hysteria, a film that seems to have been around for ages, finally opens in the US tomorrow. Maggie hasn't been able to attend premieres and events due to the recent birth of Gloria - babysitters are so unreliable these days - but in this interview Maggie talks about how she got into character by drinking lots of espresso and gives tips for managing the English accent. No doubt a subject discussed with Jake over recent years. I do hope that the film will get a British release.

Thanks to IHJ for the screencap and to BBMISwear for some of the links!

[Updated] Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal out in NYC, video catch ups (Paul Newman and The Shoes) and a WDW Interlude

Updated to add new photos from 6 April of Jake taking the subway in NYC. Looks like Jake gets his voice command on his iPod to work. When I try it I always get Abba... Thanks to IHJ for the pics, there are more there.

As the rather wet and drizzly Easter weekend continues, I thought I'd distract you from a pile of chocolate eggs and a heap of hot cross buns with an update. Jake Gyllenhaal is in NYC, where the hair and Face Pet continue to flourish, where he was seen on Thursday taking a walk with sister Maggie. Many thanks to IHJ for the new pics! Great to see Maggie looking so well.

Meanwhile, two more videos have come to light. In the first, we can see all of Jake's time on stage during the Paul Newman Dreams event last Monday. In the second, The Shoes themselves discuss the making of their controversial Time to Dance video and what is was like working with an actor as professional and as good as Jake.Thanks to Mermon for providing that second link.



Jake Gyllenhaal turns serial killer in music video by reuters

And finally, Mumford and Sons has released an image of Mumford and Jake taken during the Railroad Revival tour last year. It's a cracker and you can see it here.

WDW Interlude - roadtrip

Yesterday, taking advantage of the one sunny day of the Easter hols, we set off for the south coast, stopping off on the way at Stonehenge and Salisbury. The church is St Mary's Church in Salisbury, the interior of which is covered in paintings from the 1470s and thereabouts. The final destination was Lyme Regis and an ice cream on the beach. The photo of Stonehenge (clickable below to embiggen) shows the historic and modern setting of the ancient monument when half of the nation decides to head for the coast.

If you're on holiday, have a lovely time!

More Serious Fun video, a chat with Daniel Wolfe and Ellen Pompeo reminisces about Jake Gyllenhaal ten years on

A day on and there is more coming out of Monday's Paul Newman Dreams celebration in NYC, including a video which features more of Jake Gyllenhaal's onstage speech as well as further interviews behind the scenes. As always, I do admire how Jake thinks on his feet and responds so well to interviewers in this conveyor belt type of arrangement.



Meanwhile, Daniel Wolfe, the director of The Shoes' Time to Dance video has been talking a little about his ideas behind this rather gory video, as well as the reason for its inclusion of Jake, giving Jake his first psychotic serial killer role. 'Jake and I had been discussing a script with a mutual friend, producer Lynette Howell. I knew he was into music videos, so when we wrote up the treatment, I sent it to them. They both responded well to it. And then we just had to sort out dates.'

'The atmosphere on set changed from scene to scene. In the party scenes there was no real distinction between shooting and not shooting, it was just a party so the atmosphere was a party. Then we’d just walk Jake in. We were shooting in the snow quite a bit which was testing. Sally Campbell cooked up Irish stew and turned up on set with that which lifted spirits considerably.' Nothing like a spot of stew in between murderous takes...

And finally...

Every so often, Ellen Pompeo likes to remind us that Jake Gyllenhaal once called her the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. I gave a full account of this back in 2009 but the subject has come up again at a press conference with Ellen, which also coincides with the 10th anniversary of the most wonderful Moonlight Mile. The report's mention of Jake being 12 is clearly not that accurate...

'Before auditioning for the film, "I was... in the waiting room and the director and this guy, Jake Gyllenhaal, who I had never heard of — no one had ever heard of him at that point — walked past me," Pompeo shared. "I [had] my head down... so I didn't get a look at Jake." But when she walked in to read, the 42-year-old actress got the shock of her life. "I had met Jake a couple of weeks prior on the sidewalk," Pomep explained. "I walked into the room and I saw Jake and I said, 'Oh my God, it's you!' We sort of bumped into each other. He told me I was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen."'

Moonlight Mile was such an incredible film, for Jake and Ellen, with the strongest chemistry between Joe and Bertie, and I'm not surprised that these memories have stayed with Ellen. This also gives me the perfect excuse to post here a video of what must be in my top three most favourite moments from any Jake film.

Many thanks to IHJ for the pictures.

My review of Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists is now up at MovieBrit.

Behind the scenes with the Time to Dance video and WDW's Harry Potter Interlude

Daniel Wolfe, director of the video for The Shoes' Time To Dance, has been talking about the reason for its inclusion of a very familiar face, that of Jake Gyllenhaal.: 'Jake Gyllenhaal and I had been talking about working together on something, and I got sent 'Time To Dance' by the Shoes, who are my favorite band, so I wanted to bring Jake in on that . . . I pitched the idea to him, and he liked it, which was great... My brother and I had been chatting about doing a British take on the slasher genre for a while, but as a music video, and instead of seeing it from the victim's perspectives, we wanted to be with the killer, spend some downtime with him."

Meanwhile, The Shoes themselves have been talking about the experience: 'When we released the 'Stay The Same' music video last year with Daniel Wolfe, we were so blown away by his work that we had to bring him back for the 'Time To Dance' video. No other director understood our music like he did. We gave him our track, and today, he gives us the best music video, starring one of our favorite actors, Jake Gyllenhaal. We still can't believe it!"

WDW Harry Potter Interlude

I took a trip to Hogsmeade today (along with a good 33% of the entire world's population), which is a little ironic considering that some of Harry Potter is filmed in my own hometown of Oxford and one of its stars (Hermione) is a local and a familiar face.But Universal Studios has done a fantastic job of recreating some of the most well known places of the books and films in its sun-kissed park. Hogwarts is right there, next to Jurassic Park... The only thing more incredible than the recreation of Hogwarts and its village is the line for its ride - three and a half hours!

 

 

Yesterday, I took a trip to Disney's Animal Kingdom:

 Photos by IHJ and WDW (in WDW).

Updated with Jake out and about in NYC. It's 'Time to Dance' - Watch The Shoes' video featuring Jake Gyllenhaal

Update: Jake Gyllenhaal was seen out and about with a friend in NYC on 11 March. Many thanks to IHJ for the new pictures!

Today, The Shoes released their video for Time to Dance featuring Jake Gyllenhaal. Watch it here and let me know what you think.

Jake Gyllenhaal's 'silent revenge movie' and first image of Jake from The Shoes video

Hot on the heels that Jake Gyllenhaal may be replacing Dominic Cooper in Motor City, comes the revelation that it may be following in the illustrious footsteps of The Artist. The rumour has it that Motor City has only one line of dialogue in the entire film. Obviously, one imagines that it must be an extremely significant sentence, but it appears that Jake may not be up all night learning his lines. The way movies are going, we may look back with affection on the long lost days of the Talkie.

For more information on the script, here is a link to an interview with its author Chad St John. Apparently, there is another version of this ''silent' revenge movie' with some dialogue so we'll have to see which we get. If you're interested you can download the 2009 version of the script here (with thanks to BBMISwear for the link).

This post contains the first image of Jake from the video Time to Dance by The Shoes. The good news is that the video is released on Monday!

Posting will be intermittent over the next few days for the most excellent reason that I am off on my hols in the wee small hours tomorrow for a week in Florida - WDW is off to WDW!