Jake tells it as it is - 'Dustin, I really want to make this movie'

First off, I want to salute the power of Zodiac. My city has been struggling under a postal strike for a week now and not one scrap of post has made it through to WDW in that time. Today one item made it across the picket line - my Zodiac DVD - what more post could I possibly require? Talking of Zodiac, I found a comment by David Fincher today, which I particularly liked: "I didn't want to make a movie about sideburns. I didn't want to make a movie about plaid and flared pants, bell bottoms, and platform shoes. I didn't want it to be kitsch." This quote hails from The Times of India, perhaps indicating that, at last, Zodiac is about to reach the theatres of that nation.


A friendly tipster yesterday advised me that today Maggie Gyllenhaal would be featured in The Times as part of the SherryBaby publicity drive (released in the UK 27 July). This interview, probably recorded the same day as the recent, memorable Guardian conversation, reveals little new about the movie or Maggie's interpretation of Sherry but the interviewer notes 'Her milky blue eyes [which] look innocent. It is subtle traits like these that are magnified by the movie camera and can make a rising star.'


What is interesting is the clear struggle that existed between Maggie and her director and Maggie's emotional involvement in following the film through, right to the cinema screen: [Maggie's] 'portrayal seems in conflict with the darker vision of the director Laurie Collyer. 'Gyllenhaal admits that they “fought like crazy” during the 25-day shoot. “When I was so hopeful and looking for pleasure everywhere, Laurie was really shocked. And I just said, ‘You’re wrong.’ ” Gyllenhaal says that Sherrybaby sucked her in. “Although it’s a 25-day shoot, which is nothing, I was involved in getting the financing, doing the shooting, seeing all the edits... Then [I was] involved in getting it into festivals, finding a distributor, helping with distribution, helping with the press. It’s almost like being a producer.”'


By contrast, Maggie seems to be enjoying her working relationship with the director of The Dark Knight: 'Her current role in Batman sequel The Dark Knight has surprised her. She calls Chris Nolan “a really great director”. “He made suggestions and pushed me in ways I just didn’t expect on Batman".'

The Plymouth Independent Film Festival


Today marks the beginning of the third Plymouth Independent Film Festival, which, over four days, will feature 50 independently made films of all shapes and sizes. The festival has an environmental theme - termed "scene: Green" - and will include free outdoor movies on the Plymouth waterfront. On Saturday morning the offering is, unusually perhaps for a film festival, The Day After Tomorrow. And so I took up the search and found some more Gyllenquotes on this most mainstream and widely seen movie in Jake Gyllenhaal's career - to date. In 2003, Jake completed a Question and Answer session for IndieLondon and it contained true riches.


We've heard a great deal recently about Jake's attitude towards the environment, and there is more on that here - especally of Jake's awareness of the need to recycle, but what interests me most here is what Jake says about why he chose to do a film in the Disaster Movie Genre - surely, the most derided of all genres by serious moviegoers and filmmakers? Jake's honesty is refreshing and demonstrates that, like so many of us - myself included - Jake likes a blockbuster and he leapt at the chance to be a part of one. "I love big movies and I always have. I love watching them. I’ve never been a cineaste, preferring just small, independent films. I love big entertainment movies, so it wasn’t really a hesitation on my part. It was just whether I would have enough to do – whether it would just be a movie about the weather, or be a movie about human relationships, with a character you want to watch. I read it and I thought it was awesome." When asked he was a fan of director, Roland Emmerich’s previous work, Jake replied "I loved Independence Day, and that was a big part of me really wanting to do this movie. It has a great sense of humour – I found myself laughing at the secondary characters getting squashed, like the reporter who gets hit with an Angelina [Jolie] billboard."


The film for Jake appears to be almost as much about the forces tearing a family apart as it is about the catastrophe facing the planet: "The problems within the family, with people not paying attention to each other, are the same thing we do to the environment, and I thought that was an interesting idea. I don’t think it’s completely in the film, but I approached it that way. I thought it was a beautiful metaphor. It’s like, if we could figure out the problems in our family, we could help the bigger picture." But Dustin Hoffman did warn Jake against making such a movie, advising Jake to be patient for another offer, but "I said, ‘Dustin, I really want to make this movie’. And I think he’s been through movies that haven’t been his cup-of-tea – he’d rather be the storm in the movie than the storm itself! And I totally respect that. But I grew up with those movies. I go every Summer to all of them. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to do it. It’s a lie to say it’s a career-movie, or it’s a lie to say the character was amazing – I just wanted to be in a movie like that."


The message of the movie is about hope, "that not everything is destroyed, that we are the most resourceful creatures on earth and we will figure out a way to live. That is cool. And that’s not Hollywood to me. If there’s one criticism about Hollywood, it’s that they don’t make things real. I don’t buy that. This is a movie about how we suffer the consequences; what happens to Manhattan in this movie is very hopeful." "I think it’s presumptuous to say a movie will make a difference. I think the intention with this movie is to have fun, but it also does things that are political – like America having to ask Mexico for help. The President of the United States begging everyone for help – I’m really into that! I don’t think it will have people protesting like they did with The Passion – but it does raise issues. They’re issues we all know about, and take for granted. Hopefully, it’ll scare the shit out of some people."


Jake and the Beetles

Finally, one of the best answers of them all: Jake was asked 'is it true your great-great grandfather spent his life collecting beetles in Sweden?' and Jake replies: "That’s what I was told as a child, and I’d be devastated if it wasn’t true. It’s true to me! But, supposedly, he was a collector and cataloguer of beetles. We’re interesting people. He was knighted by the King of Sweden, and we have a coat of arms. The Gyllenhaal family has a coat of arms in Sweden!"

A reader - who knows who she is - challenged me to find a way to introduce the Beatles into our lively discussions about music - after all, we seem to have discussed most other musicians of late by using far more tenuous links to Jake. So will this do?


Includes pictures from IHJ.