Jake Gyllenhaal will not be in Bourne, 'am I a fresh vegetable or am I canned?' and our own report from Duncan Jones' Boston Q&A!

After yesterday's confirmation that Jake Gyllenhaal will star next in David Ayer's LA cop drama End of Watch, it doesn't come as too much of a surprise that the Bourne Legacy rumour that was spinning around is nothing but a red herring - albeit a rather attractive red herring. Jake told Extra: 'That's quite a rumor and that would be amazing if that were true, but it's unfortunately not.' Intriguingly, when asked if he was still 'on the market' Jake responded 'do you mean I am a fresh vegetable or am I canned? Can you pay for me at the checkout? Is that what you mean? You can definitely pay for a little piece of me if you go see 'Source Code.''



To continue the vegetable theme, Jake's role as ambassador for Edible Schoolyard has shifted up a gear with 'a new campaign to prompt America's public schools to grow their own fruit and vegetables'.


'We're trying to make it possible to have an edible garden in every public school in America," [Jake] explains. "Kids can have a new relationship to nature and to their food and to their diet and an understanding where their food comes from. Kids can take classes in these gardens and learn mathematics by counting vegetables and engage in the world in a different way than we're used to in schools. It's basically to take a piece of the concrete out and put in a garden where children can explore and learn and hopefully it changes them. I grew up around edible gardens all over the place in Los Angeles and a little bit outside of Boston, and it's changed my perspective on the world and I think it could change the world."'


'"My family always emphasized it and it's an incredibly economic way of feeding the family and having everybody learn where your food comes from. It's something that I care deeply about. I remember my niece, when she was first born, and the great irony of her learning how to walk by holding onto tomato plants and how to count with cherry tomatoes."'

I'm trying to remember what I learned to count with but I don't think it was tomatoes...


Last night, 21 March, Duncan Jones' Source Code screening tour reached the fabulous city of Boston. You can read details of the event here in the Examiner but I'm delighted to say that one of our own was at the event, BBMISwear, and with her usual generosity has sent us some photos and an account of the occasion. I saw Duncan at a Q&A for Moon and talked to him afterwards and I must agree with everything BBMISwear says about Duncan, surely the friendliest and most generous of directors. Over to BBMISwear:


'Duncan got a big round of applause when he entered the front of the theater as the end credits rolled on the screen. He discussed a few things we know already – (i.e. the British song that was in Moon and pops up again in SC, how he met with Jake about another project and Jake thought that was great but wanted him to take a look at the Source Code script, etc.). He was asked about the script and he said the structure was all very sound but there were two things he wanted to change – first, it was very serious and he wanted to lighten the tone and inject humor and Jake got on board with that and they both felt that would help the film. Second, he wanted to change the ending – he thinks that when the audience sees it they are either frustrated with the ending or love the ending with not many people just thinking it was all right.'


'I got to ask question and asked about something I saw on the B-roll with Jake saying to Duncan that the source code changes everything – future, present and past - and it seemed he was trying to convince Duncan of how that should be included but Duncan was telling him that no, that would make her (Catrina) something she is not – I asked him to tell us a bit about that. I recorded his answer with my phone – he responded with: “We had a lot of rehearsals and discussions covering where we had to get to in each scene and then we shot it all consecutively to stop it from getting too confusing while we were shooting. But, it is a very confusing idea and I think that was part of the trick of the script was to keep it simple enough that an audience can really just go with it and accept the logic behind it. Because if you think about it too much you start to fall into paradoxes which are there by design and that’s just the nature of time travel films - by their very nature.”'


'He was also asked about getting a start as a script writer, the Mute graphic novel, writing his next film now that is inspired by Blade Runner, being a sci-fi fan (here he noted he treats it seriously but thinks humor is an incredibly powerful tool and learned you can use it to get the audience to bond with a character and empathize with him and share a joke with the hero and then he becomes one of your buddies – he pointed at the screen at this point – it was obvious he was referring to Colter)!'


'After the Q&A many people headed down front to say hi and get autographs and pictures – I did all three and must say the man is one of the nicest guys you could ever meet at an event like this! He stayed and stayed and didn’t turn anyone away - happily taking pictures with anyone who wanted to do so. Rodene was right there next to him and after using her super-duper camera during the Q&A she was happy to take hold of all camera phones that were given to her (including mine) so she could take pictures for anyone that asked! She joked that we all now are going to have Duncan’s cold! (My pictures came out okay but unfortunately with a camera phone and bad lighting there wasn’t a chance of anything spectacular).'


'I only had a minute to talk to him at this point so I used my time wisely and requested that Duncan please, please, please make sure he and Jake do an audio commentary feature on the DVD as people love that and there seems to be less and less of those these days. He said that he thinks they are going to do that and I added, again, that he must do it with Jake because the two of them are terrific together based on what we’ve seen so far and he laughed at that and nodded with a big smile! It’s so obvious how fond these two are of each other. Let’s hope we get what we’re asking for on that DVD!!'

DVD commentary with Jake and Duncan? Yes, please!


This post includes new pictures from the LA press conference at the weekend, with many thanks to IHJ, and BBMISwear's photos from last night. Thank you BBMISwear for sharing your experience!

Jake Gyllenhaal confirms his next project is David Ayer's cop drama End of Watch

While talking about Source Code - or more precisely, how proud he is of 'ballsy' Anne Hathaway for co-hosting the Oscars - Jake Gyllenhaal confirmed to Access Hollywood that his next film is indeed David Ayer's End of Watch. Just last week, Jake said that he was excited about what was next but he was unable to talk about it. Clearly, that embargo is now lifted and we can now get down to looking ahead to The Next Project. It sounds like filming is about to begin and so we can hope that, after all, there will be a Jake film on our screens in 2012.



Not much is known about End of Watch, except that (according to IMDb) it's a 'drama centered on the long-term friendship and partnership between two cops' in LA. Director and writer David Ayer is known for his gritty LA Cop dramas. One hopes that, if Jake has signed on, there must be something a little different about this one. And, on a more serious point, are we talking plain clothes or uniform here?

The LA Source Code junket - New pictures and interviews with Jake Gyllenhaal and Vera Farmiga

This weekend, the Source Code press conference took place in LA. Before we get on to some of the interviews from the junket, here are a couple of pictures from the day.



Below are interviews with ET and Access Hollywood. It's interesting to hear that Jake is answering a very similar question to one he was asked during the Prince of Persia promotion - if you could go back in time and change something, what would you do? This time, though, Jake doesn't say he would go back to his birth.





There is also an interview with one of my favourites, Jake the Movie Guy.



It's also great to see an interview with Vera Farmiga, who is a definite highlight of the whole Source Code experience. This comes courtesy of First Showing.



There is also an interview with Duncan Jones at Indie Movies Online. Without doubt, I will be posting more from the weekend, so don't go too far away!

Pictures with thanks to IHJ - there are more there.

Jake Gyllenhaal putting the science fiction into every role

A cursory glance at Twitter today reveals that a considerable proportion of the population of Los Angeles has been interviewing Jake Gyllenhaal today. These include the people from the Orlando Sentinel - who are asking for some questions to phone in to Jake - and old favourite from PoP days, Jake the Movie Guy. He had this to say after the interview: 'Jake Gyllenhaal is always such a great interview -- brings up past interviews, remembers everything about you. Great guy.'


In this interview with IO9, Jake talks about how he got in to the right frame of mind for Source Code's pod sequences. It was all with the help of those videos of pilots passing out after spinning round in a G-force spinner. He'd have been similarly inspired if he'd seen the state of me when I got off Disney World's Spaceship Earth ride.



Interestingly, Jake talks about how he tries to the science fiction in every role he does, including those small family dramas. It is indeed true that even in a role such as Robert Graysmith in Zodiac, Jake plays an outsider to whom everyone else finds extremely difficult to relate, and who is almost detached from the world around him.

Yesterday we saw Young Hollywood's interview with Jake, here is the interview with Michelle Monaghan, in which she delivers the versict 'Jake's really cute and great and fun'.



My review of The Lincoln Lawyer is now up at MovieBrit.

Jake on the Box: TV schedule updated and Jake Gyllenhaal would follow Duncan Jones anywhere (including on Twitter)

The SXSW Source Code adventure may be over but there are still two weeks left until the film premieres on 1 April and that can mean only one thing: more publicity to look forward to and more Jake Gyllenhaal on the little screen. With thanks to BBMISwear for keeping an eye on the listings for me, here is an update on what we can expect over the coming days. As usual I will add a Jake On The Box feature on the front page.

23 March: Jimmy Kimmel

28 March: Conan O'Brien

31 March: Regis and Kelly

You can bet there will be more, especially those NYC breakfast shows. If you hear of anything do please let me know so that I can update the Jake schedule.


Unfortunately, we might not get more of Jake and Duncan Jones together, which is a real shame as these two could do comedy together. In this video interview with Young Hollywood, we not only see a new tablet get a plug (look at how Jake's eyes light up), we also hear why Duncan wanted to work with Jake - 'he's a hunk'. And I can definitely empathise with an interviewer who says she sees cartoon hearts when she looks at Jake. Good to hear some twitter talk too. But Jake would not only follow Duncan (@manmademoon) on twitter, he'd follow him anywhere.



Do also check out this interview with Duncan Jones by Mark Walters.



There is another interview with Jake and Duncan but before I give you the link I want to stress that it has a big spoiler in it (thanks to Jake!) and I would advise you wait before reading it in its entirety. I'll give some excerpts below but if you don't mind having Jake spoil the plot, go ahead and read it here. But please be warned. I wouldn't have wanted to read this before I saw the film. The bits below are completely safe!


Duncan: 'This was the world premiere. The first time we had shown it to people who weren't involved in the making of the movie. It was terrifying for me. I was very excited and anxious as to what the crowd's reaction was going to be. But we worked hard on it and surrounded ourselves with really, really good people. Obviously Jake and Michelle [Monaghan] plus Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright. The people behind the camera as well. These are all amazing people.'

'Q: I loved the music in the film... JG: Oh this is crazy, we have to tell you this. DJ: This is absolutely true. The guy who composed the music's name is Chris Bacon... and his middle initial is P. Chris P. Bacon. He is crispy bacon! That is his name. We just found that out and got a good laugh out of that. But it's true, he was fantastic.'


The script: 'JG: Well I think there are tendencies with the movie where a director can go one way with it. It can be just a thriller or it could be something more psychological or just stay character driven but mostly I think it was finding something who'd be able to understand the human things going on in the story as well as the visuals. I just knew it needed a particular hand and when I saw MOON, I was so blown away by it - Duncan, after these interviews you're going to hear how much I kiss your ass - that I thought it needed someone exactly like Duncan. We had met about some general things, like he has a movie that he's making and he wanted me to star in-- DJ: --which you had to reject (laughs) JG: So I ended up telling him there was this script we could check out and I thought he would never do it and he ended up saying he wanted to do it right away.'



Working in the pod and on the train: 'JG: It was really theatrical actually. It was the greatest part about performing it. We would do takes in the pod that were seven minutes long. We'd always go through an entire take and if we still had film in the mag - well we shot on HD so if we still had "data" on the hard drive, we'd just reset and go right back into it. I'd play it almost like we were on a stage, in a way. The same thing goes with the train. With the exception of certain variations, I work in a way where I like to play everything through and he always allowed that to happen.'


'DJ: It's hard enough for an actor to know their lines, remember their marks and all the technical side of acting and then break up what they're doing into tiny, little pieces? I think that's absurd. You need to let an actor get into it and feel it. If you start breaking it up into sections, you're never going to get as natural or as invested as performance.'


Includes pictures from IHJ.

Jake Gyllenhaal talks about music, biking, Source Code, the Oscars and what's next - and my SC review is now up at Bleeding Cool

There are some great videos in this post. I'm still going through them but I don't want to wait. Here are some interviews with Ben Lyons with E! in which Jake Gyllenhaal talks about all manner of things, including his favourite music. I liked this in particular because he talks of his love for Adele's new album - that's the album that I'm listening to on a loop right now.






And back to SXSW.... In this interview, Jake talks about what's next for him and while he's not able to give anything away, however much he wants to, at least we hear that he is working on a new film. There is something on the way.



In an interview with People, Jake and Michelle Monaghan discuss Jake and what any one of us might do with those last eight minutes. Michelle: '[off set] Jake played this sort of old, funny, French foodie chef – and talked a lot about food, because we ate a lot there... Jake's really, really funny," Monaghan, 34, says. "And I'd never seen that side of him in his films. To have the opportunity to spend time with him was so much fun. He's fabulous." '


Jake: '"If I were to go into someone's body whose life I felt was cut too short," he said at the premiere, "there are a number of circumstances I can think of. In fact, it's kind of hard right now to be at a movie premiere at a festival when you think about what's going on in Japan. To be able to change things like that." Gyllenhaal continued: "Or how great would it be to be able to go into Martin Luther King's body? And to be able to tell him: 'Don't do this. Don't go there.' That would be an amazing opportunity."'


And finally...

My review of Source Code is now up at Bleeding Cool and is completely non-spoilery.

I also have a review of Battle Los Angeles up at MovieBrit - spoilers seem to matter less with this one.

Many thanks to BBMISwear and Serene Hill for the heads up for the interviews.

[Updated] Jake Gyllenhaal in Men's Journal, the JG Risotto, working in the pod, and Chris Bacon on scoring Source Code

***My non-spoilery review of Source Code is now up on Bleeding Cool ***

After the excitement of the last few days, it's a pleasure to take a step back and catch up on what has been going on. And that includes Jake Gyllenhaal's appearance as Hollywood's fittest in the April issue of Men's Journal. With huge thanks to BBMISwear, here are the scans from the issue. As we have come to expect and adore, there are Gyllenisms including a remarkable history of that most revolting of organisms: The Artichoke. Click and they shall be embiggened.



Talking of fitness, Jake has been describing his experience of jumping out of a train for Source Code. It sounds like it was just as painful as one would expect jumping out of a train would be. The mystery is that Jake would expect it to be otherwise. 'I had to do a jump off of a train... I was like, 'Don't worry. I got it guys. I'm cool.' And then I injured myself. You see it in the movie when I jump off the train and then my legs go up and then I land on my shoulder. It was kind of an intense impact on my shoulder.'



And to continue the food motif, one might recall Jake's famous question to Mario Batali about why there 'is so much fear in risotto'. I don't know about you, but I'm been terrified of them ever since. But Hollywood and Dine has come up with the Jake Gyllenhaal Risotto, which aims to be everything Jake would want it to be - without the fear.

But back to Source Code... In this very interesting interview with Popular Mechanics, Jake talks a little about what it was like to act in the pod and in the train: 'What I loved about it was the sense of isolation. Duncan was always there with me. So even when I was talking to a green screen in that pod, I would always hear either Vera's voice or a variation of someone reading the lines to me. And sometimes we would do it without anybody reading it—I memorized their lines too, because you do these six-minute-long takes. That was really fun, because I could make any choice that I wanted. And then I also loved how confined and structured the train was. I loved shooting this movie, and Duncan made it so much fun and he made me feel so empowered. And he just wanted it weirder and weirder and weirder, and every time I could make it stranger, he just loved it. And that's my kind of guy.'



One of the elements of Source Code that most definitely stood out when I saw it was Chris Bacon's soundtrack. At Scorenotes you can listen to (and download) Chris talking about the challenges of reflecting the 8-minute cycle through music. Thanks to Eureka for the heads up!The album is available at the end of March and you can listen to little snippets here. There's a review of the soundtrack here, which describes it as 'required listening' and 'the first great score of 2011'.


Many thanks to BBMISwear for the scans.