Going for launch, 1999 - "Aren't they bored with this face?"

Ten years ago this year, you could feel safe (or so one thought) in the knowledge that a) you could get a pint of beer for under £2 and b) Jake Gyllenhaal's films would come out on time, no matter how slowed down their shooting was by Jake having to study dead poets between takes. Maybe they were short poems... Tonight, I thought I'd take a look back at 1999 when Jake was promoting October Sky, the first film in which Jake was the lead.


'I've seen it twice now and five minutes into the movie I always go like `Aren't they bored by now? Aren't they bored with this face?' Because I'm looking around waiting for people to go, `We've seen enough of this guy, he's already been in almost every single shot and every single second of this movie.'' (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)


The appeal of Jake's face, and the rest of him, may explain director Joe Johnson's comment to the Chicago Sun-Times: '"I don't think you sell it as a teen movie. We were surprised to find after our first test screening that the film appealed to females over 30 more than anyone else," he says. "They doubled the numbers of any other group. I wasn't expecting women to love a film about four teenage boys who shoot off rockets."'


'"It's tough to convince a studio you can do drama when all you've done is giant ants and dinosaurs coming through walls." It's even tougher to persuade a studio to cast Jake Gyllenhaal ("Josh and S.A.M."), Chris Owen ("The Party"), William Lee Scott ("The Opposite of Sex") and Chad Lindberg ("City of Angels") as the leads. They auditioned some big names, but "we didn't have the money. We didn't want to make it a huge movie," Gordon says. And Gyllenhaal, who was 17 when he was cast as Homer, "was the only guy I ever had on my Homer list. He was interesting, watchable and subtle," Johnston says.'


Jake's co-stars included risky rockets and launch pads: '"There were times where the look of fear on my face was real," Gyllenhaal says.'


And, after all that, it turns out that the tradition of delaying Jake's movies is not a new trend - it did indeed begin with October Sky, which was pushed back from 1998.'"When we screened it with an audience, the studio said, `Maybe we should take a little more time and a little more care and push it to 1999,' " Johnston said. [Producer Chuck] Gordon says he isn't worried about the cold-weather launch. "They haven't had test scores like this in 15 years at Universal. Plus we have confidence in this film. I felt great because I went to a sneak peek in Los Angeles and this big, burly guy sitting next to me was crying like a baby when the film was over. I could have hugged him."'


Includes pictures from IHJ.