Jake - 'I liked the idea of being part of an international ensemble - it turned me on'

Today the winners of the Scripter Award were announced - Ethan and Joel Coen, and author Cormac McCarthy, won the screenwriting award for No Country For Old Men. This is of interest here because also in contention was the adaptation of Zodiac and the selection committe was led by the leading star's mother, Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal. The Scripters will be handed out on 2 February.


David Fincher's heroic push to publicise the Director's Cut of Zodiac continues, with very little support, it appears, from the studio, despite the sensational reviews for the DVD across the board. This time, David was interviewed by IGN and, again, he asks the interviewer what they thought of the DVD, who replies: 'Personally, I loved it. I think the documentaries were legitimately strong supplements and I really enjoyed the extended musical transition between time periods.'


Fincher replied: 'Oh, yeah. I really loved that. But when people start booing, you have to take that into consideration... You have ideas that you really love and you want other people to love them, but in the end, it's a group endeavor. There are ideas that you have about how scenes should play and actors just don't agree, and so they play it in a way they think they should and the meaning, for you at least, gets muddled. But in the end, you've asked them to go out and humiliate themselves playing dress-up. So they get to have a say in that. There are all kinds of compromises in movie-making, so when we screen the movie and everybody starts groaning, that's an honest response.'


'I always loved the pictures in American Cinematographer which were taken 18 feet to the left of the production camera… That there were all these people with fake snow machines and fake wind. I always thought people needed to see that – not to better appreciate, but to understand… I'd like the legacy of my DVDs to be about the people who really did the work talking about what their intent was. Because so often, the initial intent can be so obfuscated by the time you're done. Sometimes there may be the thing you set out to do and the thing that it actually is – and those two things may never be one and the same.'


'I'm pretty serious about everything. And to my own discomfort. I wish I didn't care. When I first started making videos, I liked the fact that the director's name wasn't on it. To me, that was very freeing. And then, all of a sudden, MTV starts putting your name there and you think, "Oh, shit. Now these f*@kin' things have to be good."'


And on whether Torso (to which Jake has been linked more than once) is next: 'First, let's get this damn strike over with. Give these guys their four cents. [Pause] Actually, there are a couple of possibilities. Hopefully, within hours, they'll call me and tell me that the deal is done so that I can begin working on another trilogy of Heavy Metal animated CG movies. I'm looking at Devil in the White City. I'm looking at this thing called The Killer. I'm also looking at making a satirical comedy about videogame developing with Sasha Cohen. That one is really interesting.'


We've had the Zodiac DVD release, the Rendition DVD is the next to come. So, after yesterday's look at the the red carpet for Brokeback Mountain in Hollywood, tonight is the turn of the Rendition red carpet at Toronto [the link will take you to a page of videos, this red carpet one is down the page]. The interview with Reese is one I've heard before, but the one with Jake is 'new'. Here, Jake says he was attracted to the role of Douglas Freeman because 'It was nice being part of an ensemble. I liked the idea of being part of an international ensemble - it turned me on at the time.' The video also features an interview with the Gorgeous Kelley Sane - need I say more?


And finally...

...If you're in Britain, Secretary is on Film4 tonight at 10.35pm. Here is Peter with Ramona, pushing a suitcase, earlier this week in Brooklyn. Source.


Includes pictures from IHJ and Getty Images.