Did someone mention special hats?

You don't have to be a Gyllenhaalic to realise that Jake's been almost surgically attached to knitwear during recent months. Jake has turned The Beanie into this winter's most stylish accessory... What next? Medieval Persian riding boots?


Jake has had more experience of hats than most, despite having a famously oversized (albeit perfect) head. He told Minneapolis' Star tribune 'It's not that it's a big head. It's just that it's an abnormally sized head. Hard to fit a hat around. If you asked my uncle, I'm sure it runs in the family. We should get some disability for it.' However, not surprisingly for a film named after a bad haircut, Jarhead required Jake to wear a full range of hats, although not necessarily on his head.





Jake's requirement to have 'special hats' made for his special head for Brokeback Mountain was an embarrassment. 'In the movie that I'm doing now they all made special hats for me. Heath has a fine-sized head. We just did a make-up test the other day and they were all bringing our make-up in and stuff and it was like the hats were the special moment. 'Jake's special hats are coming; they're coming in!' I felt so insecure because of it. Just don't mention special hats!… I'd like James Franco's. That'd be a good head!'


Speaking of James Franco... the actor who kisses Sean Penn in Milk is facing similar questions to those asked of Jake and Heath back in 2005/2006. The fact that journalists continue to ask actors these same questions three years on is an irritation: 'For now, however, Franco is happy to be described as a "scene stealer" in the multi-nominated Milk. Just don't ask him trivial questions about working out ("I don't. It's boring") or kissing his hero Sean Penn. "It's not that I mind talking about it, it's just that... there's so much scrutiny over the answers I offer," he says. "I really noticed it when Jake [Gyllenhaal] and Heath [Ledger] had to talk about kissing in Brokeback Mountain. It's like you can never answer in the right way. If I'm too casual it looks as though I'm making fun of the film. If I don't answer, it looks as though I'm uncomfortable. I can't win." He rubs his eyes. Then, finally, smiles. "God, I'm being way too serious! OK. You want the simple answer? I had no problem with kissing Sean Penn."'·


Torso is more stop/go than a set of traffic lights and, true to form, Paramount has let its rights to the project lapse. No doubt the rumours about it will persist, like a cloud of flies, until the end of time. Worryingly, this could mean that David Fincher's next project will feature Chef Keanu after all. Talking of torsos...


Includes pictures from IHJ and scan from WDW.

Jake's Blockbuster lesson No 1 - Have a personal trainer

It's cold outside. In fact, it's very cold outside. Seems very appropriate to thank IHJ for the new/old pics of Jake Gyllenhaal (with Zooey Deschanel) messing about in the snow in not nearly enough layers. But at least from this we can tell that if ever we need to build an emergency igloo, Jake is the sexgod, sorry man, for the job.


It is very likely that Jake will be heading back to the unreasonably and unfairly sunny climes of Los Angeles any day now, in which case, it's only fair that he should be reminded of what he will be missing. But, Californian or not, Jake has experience of big snow and Arctic seas thanks to Roland Emmerich and The Day After Tomorrow. Back in the days when Jake filmed this first big taste of a blockbuster, it was all a bit of a mystery about what he had let himself in for.


The lovely Emmy Rossum recounted: 'During filming, "we were in that tank, wet and cold and shivery, so much of the time and trying to keep our spirits up," the 17-year-old actress tells us, adding that their showbiz naivete didn't help. "There was one point (when) we were so exhausted we both collapsed," she said. "Jake said, 'So this is why those big movie stars ask for personal trainers. We should ask for those.' I said, 'Yeah, next time.'"' No wonder, then, that for PoP Jake should have trained his body to be capable of withstanding everything thrown at it, and why he had a trainer ensuring he was running up hills, in a flak jacket, every morning at the crack of dawn.


The Day After Tomorrow set does sound like it had its dangers: '"It looks like I'm running really slowly in the water, but it wasn't dangerous," he said. "I was in a dry suit for 50 takes. The only dangerous thing I did was almost smack my head on a crane."' (Chicago Sun-Times 2004). That would not have been good.


Elsewhere: 'Though he admits Montreal proved to be "one of the coldest places on Earth that winter," Gyllenhaal says he would gladly have traded the real snow on the Montreal streets for the fake snow in the studios. "The snow was made of the same stuff inside baby diapers. When you mix it with water, it expands immediately and you can squeeze it through your hands like jello, which is pretty much what happened inside our lungs."'


'The fake snow was also slippery. "I was supposed to run up this steep hill made of wood that was covered with the snow," recalls Gyllenhaal. "I turned down a stunt double because it seemed like such an easy stunt -- until I kept falling flat on my face." Eventually, Emmerich called for the stunt double who also ended up face first in the diaper padding. "They had to rethink the whole scene," says Gyllenhaal. When he was running down the flooded streets of New York, he was wearing boots and a dry-suit that filled with water. "It's why I'm running so slowly. I could barely move. We shot the sequence about 50 times. It almost did me in." Gyllenhaal says he likes The Day After Tomorrow because "there are no superheroes, just ordinary people. No one saves the world. People just have to learn how to live in the new world that the global warming creates."'


More trouble for Torso?

And it looks like David Fincher's Torso may be running into yet more trouble. According to this report, paramount are still holding back and there is still no decision on whether filming can take place in Cleveland. Interestingly, IGH gives the cast as Matt Damon, Casey Affleck and Rachel McAdams - not a Jake in sight.


Includes pictures from IHJ.

Carry on waiting: PoP and Torso - and buttons and toggles

One of the qualifications for being a card-carrying Gyllenhaalic, is that you get used to things being postponed and, last night, the hoped-for promotion of Prince of Persia on Entertainment Tonight, became yet another example. So, we must wait a little longer for the interviews with Jake and his fellow PoPpies, and again must hope that when it does televise, we get more than a two-minute soundbite.



But the signs are that much more publicity is to come. Film sites across the net are dropping hints from the recent press day (mentioned here the other day), hosted by Jerry Bruckheimer on the Pinewood set of Prince of Persia. It sounds as if the sites have been warned to not yet mention what they experienced of this major project and instead they have been focusing on Bruckheimer's other major movies on the horizon, most of which appear to feature Johnny Depp. We are promised reports of the PoP visit during the coming months.


Jake has been associated with the David Fincher project Torso since before the original murders took place. Remember Jake's fake Torso tattoo on his inner arm back in the summer of 2006? It was wondered at the time whether this was part of Jake's campaign to win the role from Fincher, or maybe it was the result of a Zodiac-Torso shindig (permanent marker pens are never a good idea at a party...). However, earlier this year, Matt Damon's name began to be associated with the role of Elliot Ness. But there are two big roles in this project - murderer and detective.


Recent interviews with producer Bill Mechanic have suggested that Torso will be David Fincher's next role. More interestingly, Mechanic has been at pains to deny or confirm nothing when it comes to the casting: he 'also says the people that are rumored to be attached probably are…'. And here: 'Could the square-jawed Damon be Ness then? Could Gyllenhaal be reprising his “Zodiac” fascination with the hunt for a serial killer as the story’s narrator? “Some of those rumors are true,” Mechanic said, “and some of those rumors are not true. But there are major people waiting to come aboard.”' This man should be a politican.


Whatever happens, and I think it unlikely Jake will climb aboard this one, I will always welcome the idea of Jake working again with David Fincher. It's just difficult to know if Jake feels the same way. Jake working with Matt Damon, clearly someone Jake respects greatly, is another reason to tick the boxes on this one. One thing's for sure - if Jake does get involved and Torso is made, it will be postponed.


Setting woolly trends

Now that the winter weather is fair closing in - at least in these parts - you too can be cool in classic knitwear ala Jake. With thanks to IHJ for the new old pictures of Jake in one of his favourite cardies, this post is illustrated by some of the more notable woollies that have kept Jake cosy over recent years.



And finally

Here is a great sighting of Maggie, Peter, Ramona and possibly Naomi yesterday at the Brooklyn's Children Museum.



Includes pictures from IHJ and Just Jared.

Jake to work with Fincher again? Jake 'has the capability and the depth to love'

Here's something else to think about... I thought I'd put it out there that David Fincher's Torso project, much talked about in 2006, appears to be reawakening and may well be his next movie after he completes The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, possibly before his sci-fi film Rendezvous with Rama. This is particularly interesting because Jake Gyllenhaal's name is still connected with it.


Produced by Angry Films and to be distributed by Paramount Pictures, Torso is another grizzly Fincher film, more along the lines of Se7en than the procedural Zodiac. It tells the true story, set in the 1930s, of Eliot Ness, an agent for the US Treasury, who becomes a public safety officer in Cleveland, which is being terrorised by a spate of gruseome murders. Ness assembles a team of retired cops to find the serial murder whose trademark is to dump the torsos of his vctims in the river. It is based on a graphic novel by Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko. The secreenplay is by Ehren Kruger, who is also the writer of Transformers 2, The Ring and Brothers Grimm. The producers are Terry Fitzgerald, Todd McFarlane and Bill Mechanic. These details are from IMDbPro.


Having come across this on IMDbPro, I did some searching around and came across this September 2007 post on the Gilliam Dream messageboard forum: 'Its dark tone and structure inspired Fincher, who first read it whilst in production on Zodiac. To add a further connection to Zodiac, Fincher has even cast Jake Gyllenhaal as Eliot Ness!! A good piece of casting indeed, plus it's due to start production early next year, it's been in development for a few years, but Paramount Pictures have recently put it on the fast-track, to avoid the impending 2008 Writers Guild, Directors Guild and Screen Actors Guild strike, so we could see it for 2009!!'


This is flimsy 'evidence' and is merely put here to start a discussion. It makes me think of three things in particular - would Jake want to be involved in a second David Fincher project, even taking their clear friendship into consideration? Would Jake want to be in another film about a serial killer so close in time to the Zodiac during which, Jake has said, it took him into a world he was glad to leave behind? And it reminds me of August 2006 when Jake was seen walking around NYC with TORSO 'tattooed' on his right forearm. Do you remember Tattogate? I know some people have more reason to remember this time than most as it coincided with a bookreading by Stephen Gyllenhaal on MV, which Jake attended.


At the time, there was much debate about what these letters said on Jake's arm, not to mention why they were there. A fun time! But, to me, they clearly say 'TORSO' - a coincidence? I doubt it. Just click on these pictures, embiggen 'em and take a look.

Thanks to Jantoinette for the alert on this, which set me off!

Hot and sexy Jake

Here is a link to a video which comes from two, I think, TV shows, which revel in Jake's more obvious attractions. Containing clips screened shortly after Moonlight Mile and The Day After Tomorrow, the video shows a series of tributes to the young actor, including one by Susan Sarandon, who says 'he's so goodlooking, he could play just your normal everyday kind of cutie'. Model Adrienne Curry says 'Jake Gyllenhaal is sexy because not only does he have a fabulous body, but he's also got this childlike innocence to him. You just want to pinch his cheeks and make out with him at the same time'.


So what does Jake think about all this? 'When I hear that I'm a hot and sexy young actor, it makes me feel hot and sexy.' Watch the video if only for that moment!

Crushes

Talking of Susan Sarandon and Jake, I was having a look at Jake's section on people.com and it includes a great quote from Susan. In December 2002, Jake won a spot in People's Sexiest Man Alive issue and Susan said 'He's gorgeous, and he's got those big dreamy eyes. A lot of eyes can't offer 'I love you' in a convincing way. With Jake, you believe he has the capability and the depth to love. That's awesomely attractive.' I think in this case I'll forgive use of the word 'awesome'.


Jake's co-star in Moonlight Mile, Aleksia Landeau, told People in September 2002 that 'Everyone had crushes on him – wardrobe, makeup, everybody. He's not like those actors who are like, 'Look at me!' He has a poetic soul. He lets people come to him.'

It made me chuckle to read a quote from Jake himself, revealing he's not safe from having a crush or two either. It seems Jake told In Style in 2001: 'I had a model phase, then a thing for Alyssa Milano and Christina Applegate. But I was in love with Martha Plimpton.'


And finally...

...Just for Neely, as requested, here are caps of Jake at 48 seconds and 49 seconds from the truly adorable pink snap bracelet video - here is the link to that treat again.



Includes pictures from IHJ.