A Chic NYC Sighting and Sam Mendes wants another shot at Jarhead

The strange and mysterious tweeting world of twitters has alerted the inhabitants of New York City to the possibility of encountering Jake Gyllenhaal around each and any corner of that city. Time for all NYC Gyllenhaalics to start frequenting those bistros and coffee shops, and hat shops. Talking of hats, Jake has been spotted again today. This time Jake was a 'Chic Sighting' for Fashion Weekly: 'Meanwhile at Balthazar, a knit cap-wearing Jake Gyllenhaal arrived for a late breakfast with three distinguished gents.'


From my reckoning, it would seem that the sighting was chic for five reasons: 1) It was Jake 2) the hat was a beanie and not a fedora (the beanie is now officially forgiven by WDW) 3) Jake was with 'distinguished gents' (presumably, they wore ties) 4) Balthazar is a French bistro of 'exceptional design' 5) it was a 'late' breakfast. Having studied the breakfast menu, I like to think that Jake's breakfast featured egg with soldiers.


I also like to think that a late breakfast meeting with three distinguished gents means that Jake is putting his autograph on the contract for Love and Other Drugs, aka LOG.

Sam's Jarhead regrets

Sam Mendes has briefly touched on Jarhead during his publicity rounds for Away We Go and there would be no complaints about this statement: 'I’d like to do a director’s cut of Jarhead.'


'[How was that film compromised?] I took the politics out of it. [Why?] I don’t know. Because it felt wrong at the time, I think. I was too close to it, and I couldn’t give it a context. We were in the middle of the height of the Gulf War, and people were determined to make the film into something that was political, and I felt that I wanted it to stand on its own, and be timeless. The thing I regret, which I didn’t have to do on Away We Go, was that I didn’t have a chance to be away from it for a while. I shot Away We Go, then did a play, then came back to the film and did post. So that gave me some objectivity with it, whereas with Jarhead, I was working on it right up until its release date. I had a strange experience during the premiere of Jarhead, I was watching it and thinking ‘Wait a minute, they’ve skipped a scene! Where did that scene go?’ Then I realized, I’d cut the fucking thing! (laughs) And that shouldn’t happen to you as a filmmaker. You should know the landscape of your movie intimately. That just shows you that sometimes when you don’t have the time, you can really compromise your own material without meaning to.'


Jarhead is such a strong film that I doubt many of us (biased as we possibly are) would have thought the film compromised and would instead argue that some films have too long in post-production - I can think of several examples. But a director's cut of Jarhead would be some treat and I hope Sam gets the chance to release a film with a landscape he recognises and feels comfortable in. Obviously, it would feature more shower scenes.


Includes pictures by IHJ.