Jake's Giant Leap, and Jake and Zodiac make the lists

After the excitement of the last day or two, there's some catching up to do today. Not least of which is the suggestion that the Moon Project - my own personal favourite among the films Jake Gyllenhaal has in store for us over the next couple of years - has a new name. How long it will last as the name is anyone's guess, as it's not particularly original, but I suppose it has a better ring to it than Unnamed Moon Project (or UNP). Accoring to the New York Times, we can now call UNP Giant Leap. In the absence of a suitable Moon Giant Leap Project photo, one from the days of Moon Light Mile must do.


Jake and Zodiac on the 2007 lists

Coming to the end of the year as we are, this means we are entering the season of lists. Jake is on a couple of them. Empire has listed its 100 Sexiest Movie Stars and at No 32 is our own Jake looking very much like he should be No 1. 'That cheeky smile, those sleepy eyes, that difficult-to-pronounce surname… There’s some damn fine genes in that there Gyllenhaal family. With those classic good looks and impressive acting chops, there’s little wonder his fans refer to themselves as "Gyllenhaalics".' So we get a mention as well. It also includes a reference, yet again, to the Paul Newman story. To see this story from a slightly different perspective, have a look at this little Celebrity Fact or Fiction video from MSN.


The No 1 spot is occupied by one Angelina Jolie while No 2 is Brothers' Natalie Portman. Daniel Craig is the highest placing sexy man at No 3. A little odd finding Hermione, or Emily Watson aged just 17, on the list at No 26.

The University of Calgary's Gauntlet magazine has listed its top 10 movies of the year. No 3 is Zodiac: 'Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey Jr. anchor an excellent investigative piece into the identity and motivations of the infamous Zodiac killer that terrorized California's Bay Area during the 1960s. Based on a book on the subject written by Robert Graysmith (played in the film by Gyllenhaal), Zodiac maintains suspense despite the outcome being known to everyone with a library card or access to Wikipedia.' No 2 is 3:10 to Yuma and the No 1 is No Country for Old Men.


Zodiac's musical montage over blankness

The Guardian today has a feature on Randall Poster who has been responsible for compiling the soundtracks for such films as Heath Ledger's latest I'm Not There and Zoolander. He also worked on Zodiac and this is what he has to say about one particular 'blank' scene, which has now made it onto the special Director's edition, to, I think it's fair to say, a mixed reception. Fortunately, we don't have long to wait to see it ourselves.


'I've worked on movies that are $1m or less, up to budgets of over $100m. They always clip my budgets, so I never have enough. In the original cut of David Fincher's Zodiac we worked on a musical montage sequence that would cover the passing of time, during the 1970s. We worked on that a long time. It was fun to do, and it was fun to scare the studio into thinking we were gonna spend $2m on a montage of music over a black screen. We did it so many different ways, with so many different songs, but it was more like a parlour game. I remember at a certain point we were building towards the disco era. I don't know what Fincher did with it, or whether it'll be on the DVD, but it was fun to torture the studio with it.'


Includes pictures from IHJ.